leg-shield

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A defensive appliance formerly used to protect the leg of a juster: sometimes attached to the saddle, sometimes to the poitrel of the horse, and sometimes forming a separate shield-shaped plate of iron. This shield, of whatever form, was worn particularly to guard the left leg, because this side was especially liable to injury by striking against the barrier which separated the justing knights. The first of the three forms was also used in war.