Originally, a wild pony, a mustang; later generalized in the West as a name for any horse, often with a derogatory or contemptuous connotation.
See also: cayuse ((n.))
- 1825  (1931)  Started before Day break and was very much inclined to give the Indian Horses the benefit of a few Miles exercise in order to relieve our Weary limbs but ascertained the proprietors could track us and not knowing their Strength thought it was as well to let be for let be.
- 1960  There is nothing--no, not so much as a doff of the hat--to the cowpony, the packhorse, the mustang, the Indian horses, the quarter horse, the pinto, the hundreds of thousands of animals which opened up the Canadian west. . . .