covering horse

English

Noun

covering horse (plural covering horses)

1. A stud horse; a stallion kept as a stud.

   That year he earned extra income by keeping a covering horse, which he hired out to a number of local farmers.

   • 1911 [1798], Daniel Agnew, edited by Arthur Lowndes, Archives of the General Convention‎^[1], II: The Correspondence of John Henry Hobart 1798–1801, New York: The Commission on Archives [General Convention of the Episcopal Church], Hobart Correspondence, page 64:

     ...he is now fat and looks as grand as a covering horse.

   • 1886 [1806], Indiana General Assembly, The Laws of the Indiana Territory: 1801–1806, Inclusive‎^[2], Paoli, Indiana: Throop & Clark, Laws Passed at the Second Session of the First General Assembly of the Indiana Territory, page 51:

     ...but if any owner or keeper of a covering horse, shall wilfully or negligently suffer said horse to run at large, out of the inclosed lands of said owner or keeper, any person may take up said horse, and carry him to his owner or keeper, for which he shall receive two dollars...

   • 1837 [1807], Oliver H. Prince, A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia‎^[3], Second Edition, volume II, Athens, Georgia: Oliver H. Prince, Tax. 1807, 1808, page 392:

     33. Sec. V. There shall be annually levied and collected upon all stallions or covering horses, let to mares for hire, a tax equal to the season, or price of one mare let to such stallion or covering horse.

   • 1830 December [1827], John Wickham, American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine‎^[4], volume 2, number 4, Baltimore: J. S. Skinner, Turf Register: Horses Bred by John Wickham, Esq. of Richmond, Va., page 206:

     The pedigree of Florizel, on the side of his dam, I have often seen, when he was a covering horse, but have no recollection of it.

   • 1831 February [1830], William R. Johnson, American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine‎^[5], volume 2, number 6, Baltimore: J. S. Skinner, Timoleon, page 269:

     ...and I would as soon this day enter it in a stake of from one to five hundred dollars each, as to select from the season of any covering horse, no matter how many mares he had put to him.

   • 1881 [1830], David Demaree Banta, A Historical Sketch of Johnson County, Indiana‎^[6], Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., page 73:

     "It is," says the record, "ordered, that there be levied a county revenue for the year A. D. 1830, on each horse, mule or ass over three years old, 31¼ cents; each covering horse, $2; on each work oxen, 15¾ cents; each pleasure carriage, 50 cents; on each brass clock, 50 cents; on each watch, 25 cents...