wheel horse

or wheel-horse

noun

Also called wheeler. a horse, or one of the horses, harnessed behind others and nearest the front wheels of a vehicle.
Chiefly South Atlantic States. the left-hand horse of a pair hitched to a wagon or plow.
Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. a reliable, diligent, and strong worker.

Origin of wheel horse

First recorded in 1700–10

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for wheel horse

Historical Examples of wheel horse

He was instantly met and borne to the snow by Bones, the second “wheel-horse.”
On the Yukon Trail
Roy J. Snell
As a leader he was fine; as a wheel-horse, he was not always just to himself.
From Manassas to Appomattox
James Longstreet
Garrett one day, "every church has to have a wheel-horse, and I might as well be the wheel-horse as any body."
Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler
Pardee Butler
One gun upset when a wheel-horse was shot, and had to be abandoned, together with a waggon, the horses of which were killed.
South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 6 (of 6)
Louis Creswicke
Had the other wheel-horse not been as steady as a rock, we would have gone right over.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847.
Various

British Dictionary definitions for wheel horse

wheel horse

noun

another word for wheeler (def. 1)
US and Canadian a person who works steadily or hard

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012