quarter horse

noun

|Updated on: 18 Jun 2018

Definition of quarter horse

: any of a breed of compact muscular saddle horses developed in the U.S. and characterized by great endurance and by high speed for short distances

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Recent Examples of quarter horse from the Web

Horseback rides are on good-old gentle quarter horses.

— kathryn o’shea-evans, WSJ, "An Insider’s Guide to Summertime Aspen," 5 June 2018
When Lukas switched to thoroughbreds, Baffert stayed in quarter horses but eventually got talked into trying the more prestigious form of racing.

— john cherwa, latimes.com, "Preakness' training titans Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas might have made a super team," 16 May 2018
American quarter horses are used in the sport of reining, a sort of Western dance in which rider and horse are in sync as the horse spins and runs around an arena.

— paul sullivan, New York Times, "Forget the Kentucky Derby Prize. The Big Return on Investment Is in Breeding.," 4 May 2018
The 5-year-old quarter horse broke sharply, leaving behind a field that had no chance to catch up.

— hal lundgren, Houston Chronicle, "Jess Bein The Hero soars to Bank of America Texas Championship victory," 21 Apr. 2018
Lewis, who specializes in lower-level quarter horses, thought the horse needed to run farther than 400.

— hal lundgren, Houston Chronicle, "Eye N Capo wins Sam Houston Classic," 12 May 2018
Michael Miola, a breeder of quarter horses who made his fortune as the founder of the mutual fund technology company NorthStar Financial Services, runs Silver Spurs Equine.

— paul sullivan, New York Times, "Forget the Kentucky Derby Prize. The Big Return on Investment Is in Breeding.," 4 May 2018
Del owns a pair of steeds, the more mellow of whom is a quarter horse named Lean on Pete; with his jockey Bonnie (Chloe Sevigny) and with Charley signed up as general purpose gofer, Del plies a circuit of county fairs and backwoods racetracks.

— ty burr, BostonGlobe.com, "‘Lean on Pete’ is a moving story of a boy and his steed," 11 Apr. 2018
When Baffert moved from Arizona to run quarter horses at Los Alamitos in 1983, Earnhardt sent along a filly, Miss Bud Light to his fledgling stable.

— john cherwa, latimes.com, "Hal Earnhardt is bullish on Ax Man's future," 9 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'quarter horse.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.