warhorse

Any horse used in horse-cavalry, but especially one bearing an armoured knight.

Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the military attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness to undertake some distant journey.

As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his war-horse, galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound round his wounded arm.

An experienced person who has been through many battles, situations or contests; someone who has given long service.

Near-synonym: workhorse

Among other accidents of that year was a Democratic president. Judge Atwood was a warhorse of Democracy.

A regularly revived theatrical or musical work, as with Hamlet or a Beethoven symphony, or as excerpts thereto. May imply that the work in question has become hackneyed.

a Wagner warhorse

I remember taking the old warhorse, “Una Voce Poco Fa,” from Il Barbiere (Rossini) to three of the greatest living singing masters in Italy.