No help on this end Wow. I have always known them by the French term of cheval de bois (wooden horse). We do use the term carousel in French to discribe a merry-go-round.

Isn't that round thing you find in kiddy parks also a merry-go-round. You know, that large round piece of wood with horizontal push-handles that the kids grab then proceed to run like the dickens. When a good momentum is reached everybody jumps on (except the little kids of course who nearly all get ground up underneath the thing).