the.com/steed

means A horse, especially a spirited or finely bred one ridden rather than hitched to a plow — the word reaches for grandeur a plain 'horse' doesn't bother with.

from From Old English 'steda,' meaning a stallion or warhorse, itself tied to 'stod' — the root that also gives us 'stud' (as in stud farm). So 'steed' originally meant something like 'stud-horse,' a breeding or battle animal of status, not a farm hack. Over centuries it drifted from a precise term for a male horse into the poetic, slightly theatrical word it is now — the one knights ride in stories, not the one pulling a cart.