a horse a piece

[Drew Danielson]

I am interested in phrases that signify (usually qualitative) similarity
or equality.  Examples are "a horse a piece", "six of one, half dozen of
the other", or "the same difference".  I have an (obvious) feeling that
"a horse a piece" has its origins somewhere in equestrian culture, but
as a newbie to dialectology, I have not been able to confirm or trace it
with the resources at my disposal.

A discussion of origins of these sorts of phrases seems to me to be a
reasonable segue out of the chad threads, not to mention that whole mess
in Florida :)

Drew.Danielson at cmu.edu