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From Middle Englishhorseleche, horse leche(“horse doctor; bloodsucker, leech”), equivalent to horse + leech.
So called because it commonly attacks the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals, such as horses, that drink at pools where it lives.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy:, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection vi:
Some use horse-leeches behind the ears, and apply opium to the place.
horse-leech on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
horse-leech on Wikipedia.Wikipedia