packhorse

See also: pack-horse and pack horse

English

An Australian stockman leading a packhorse

Alternative forms

• pack horse
• pack-horse

Etymology

pack +‎ horse

Noun

packhorse (plural packhorses)

1. A horse used as a pack animal.
   • 1997, Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms, page 232:

     Finally they put him on one of De Soto's packhorses, but even on a packhorse his feet hung down to within a few inches of the ground.

   • 2009, Victor Grant Smith, edited by Jeanette Prodgers, The Champion Buffalo Hunter: The Frontier Memoirs of Yellowstone Vic Smith, Revised edition, page 70:

     Procter had a handsome half-breed girl with him and two splendid elk heads and meat on his packhorses that he was taking to Fort Lincoln for sale.

   • 2010, Bill G. Yung, The Half Fast Hunter, page 41:

     While I was destroying my parka, the packhorse that Bob had been leading laid down. So now all our supplies were supine along with the napping packhorse. Looking upon a reclining packhorse while facing a wind-driven rain, wearing a tattered rain parka, with lightning flashing every fifteen seconds followed by thunder so loud my clothes shuddered was not how I had expected the afternoon to unfold. Each time we got the packhorse to his feet he would promptly lie down again.

Synonyms

• (horse used to carry heavy items): rowney, sumpter, sumpter horse

Derived terms

• packhorse bridge

Translations

packhorse — see pack horse

See also

• carthorse
• packsaddle