Cataphract, Clibanarii, whatever, against Infantry

[PMBardunias]

And of course a human body is very squishy and so if a running horse stepped on it. . .

Thanks for your reply. I agree that an untrained horse might balk at walking over bodies. I have been at ranches and Zoos where they use either a grate of metal bars or something that looks like a plastic egg carton to block opened gates to hoofed mammal's passage in just this way.

My interest is actually a bit beyond that behavior though. If cavalry hit a phalanx at anything faster than a walk and succedded in killing/toppling men in their ranks, then they could not help but cross over the patch of fallen bodies. I just wondered if this was suicidal, indicating that cavalry would have to charge right up tp a phalanx and then slow to engage the first rank if the phalanx stood firm. This would to some extent render the age-old debate about cavalry charging steady, formed men irrelevent, because I don't think anyone would argue that you can't walk a horse into a rank of men, fighting your way in and pushing. The whole equine behavioral limitation of not wanting to run into a wall of men is gone.

It would also be an indication that accounts where horses do charge through ranks of men and we don't read of piles of horseflesh are either embelleshments on such a walking attack, or indications that the men were already well broken out of ranks.