Practical good sense.
1833. He’s a man of good strong horse sense.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The Banks of the Ohio,’ ii. 215 (Lond.).
1845. He is an odd genius, and withal has good horse sense.—‘The Cincinnati Miscellany,’ i. 190. (Italics in the original.)
1859. The quaint conversation of our guides was a never-failing source of amusement—rough as the pine knots of their own native forests, but with a kind of “hard horse” sense.—Yale Lit. Mag., xxiv. 229 (March).
1870. The new phrase,—born in the West, we believe—of “horse-sense,” which is applied to the intellectual ability of men who exceed others in practical wisdom.—The Nation, N.Y., Aug. 18, xi. 105/2. (N.E.D.)
1872. He had what is roughly known as “horse-sense.”—C. D. Warner, ‘Backlog Studies,’ p. 124. (N.E.D.)
1893. A round bullet head, not very full of brain, yet reputed to be fairly stocked with what is termed horse-sense.—Lippincott’s Mag., p. 260 (Notes and Queries, 9 S. ii. 131).
