"Halter" - two odd questions

[Jane&Ziggy]

One technical, one etymological.

First, can anyone tell me if there is a difference between a halter and a headcollar, and if so what it is? Is "headcollar" a subset of "halter"?

Second, are halters called halters because they halt the horse? Or am I making things up??

 

[Skib]

Linda like you is an expert on language here. You need to set all language in the context of period. And geographical location. OH is very keen on origin of words and swears by the big Oxford dictionary. According to that, halter comes from OE helve or to hold. The means by which you hold a horse or cattle. As opposed to halt meaning stop - (lame and hindered)

I use the word halter (modern usage) for a rope halter -either knotted or pressure halter which tightens. Collar implies something that fastens round the neck or head? To my English mind, if it has a buckle, that means it is a head collar. We call head collars "head collars" because we copy what other people do when it comes to words - no one on the yard says "halter" these days. But as far as I can see, Headcollar is not even in our elderly Oxford dictionary. So a relatively new coinage?
It isnt in the modern Chambers dictionary we use for the Times crossword either.

 

[popularfurball]

Also there there is an element of location too - I think Karin US and other USA posters tend to call them all haters, wheras over here I think rope ones tend to be halted and buckled ones headcollars as skib says.

I prefer the word halter, but people look at me like I'm nuts if I use it :giggle:

 

[Joyscarer]

I'm with Skib. A rope one is a halter and a fixed one with buckles is a headcollar and I never remember it being known as anything else in my time with horses.

 

[Kis Vihar]

Agree with the above, in the UK, a headcollar is a headcollar, and a halter is either one of the NH type rope ones, or a showing one (white rope/white webbing) or the really old fashioned 'fit anything' rope ones.

In the USA I think headcollars are halters, and halters and halters...!

As for 'do they halt a horse?'.... Good question! No idea if that's the origin of the word.

 

[Skib]

At the risk of being academic, I was curious to see how military halters/headcollars were described.
In the Napoleonic wars or WW1 for instance and on police horses in Texas today, the horse has a bridle plus a head collar. This could well be why the term head collar came into use in UK.

One web site describes the artillery horses too as wearing a double bridle -
"All of the horses used by the artillery team in draught wore a double bridle. The first part consisted of a head collar (le Licol), nose band, throat lash and cheek pieces. It fastened off side with a buckle, a bridoon bridle (le Filet) consisting of cheek pieces head piece and brow band and a second bridle (Le Bride) for the snaffle bit (mors), consisting of head piece, brow band, cheek pieces, nose band and throat lash."

The head collar had stitched to it a leather tethering rope. "The service head collar was constructed in such a way that it can be used either as a bridle or as a head collar in the stables and on the picket line. "

 

[Yann]

There's definitely a transatlantic element - eg. The Dually Halter is a headcollar with a nose rope rather than a rope halter, but to my mind the two are interchangeable. We talk about halter breaking in this country when we mean getting a horse used to leading in a headcollar.

The word is derived from old english apparently, and can also apply to hanging. My guess would be that it's name comes from being able to stop an animal, just as it sounds.

 

[newforest]

So why is there a word for canter and a word for lope?
Trailer as oppose to float
Hack as oppose to trail?

Yann-yes you don't hear headcollar broken, its halter broken.

 

[Trewsers]

I assumed halters were the old fashioned rope items I have seen in my Marion Coates and Pat Smythe books? In most of the black and white photos it shows the horses wearing these in the stable or around the yard. (I'm not old they were my mothers's books!!!)

 

[Lemme]

intruiging whatever, halter or headcollar, if they are derived from "used to halt" they obviously did not test it on a 36" shetland with his mind set on other things, in that case its something with a rope attached used for towing!:giggle:

 

[Esther.D]

you don't hear headcollar broken, its halter broken.

You would always use a rope halter on a youngster, even in my time (I'm only 35 but have been riding from 3) youngsters started in halters. They fitted everyone and added a bit of a controller element.They really were very practical, fitted everything as well. My first pony arrived wearing a thick brown rope halter.

Skib - as far as I am aware the headcollar was not seperately described, it was just part of the military bridle.

No-one uses 'headstall' any more but I have seen that in old books refering to a headcollar as a headstall and as said above a rope halter as a halter.

 

[KarinUS]

They are halters to me. It's either a flat nylon halter (or a leather halter) or a rope halter.
Head collar is what you guys 'over there' call a halter.

I assumed a headstall was a bridle.

 

[Bodshi]

When I was a kid we called them halters. When I returned to riding as an adult everyone gave me a blank look when I asked where I could find a halter.

 

[newforest]

Is a halter something that ties around the neck, as in halter neck ,dress.

My main difference is a headcollar has breaking points, a rope or nylon halter does not.

You can show in the white halter but you wouldn't show in a headcollar.

 

[eml]

In my mind halters were what we used to use, either rope or woven they encompassed a part that went over the horses head and around the nose with a moveable part that went behind the jaw and made a lead rope. I was always taught to make a knot that stopped that becoming tighter if the horse pulled.

We therefore made our halter into a headcollar and rope.

These days halters are used in different ways. Firstly as a tradition in showing, used as above, secondly as a means of control without the 'knot' at the jaw as an extra control. The name is also misused in terms of 'control halters' which vary...we use the BeNice type which are far from nice but effective in the right hands through poll pressure, others use 'controller' halters which have varying degrees of pressure on the nose