Roman Heavy Cavalry Fighting Techniques

[Robert Vermaat]

Although I'm by no means a specialst in cavalry warfare, I think (also from the various cavalry discussions on this forum) that indeed, the horse was controlled mostly by knees and legs.
The same would be the case for horse archers.
I think in general, with a large shield, the lance was used with one hand (as would be the javelin), but with a smaller shield attached to the arm a lance could be used two-handed. Although I've seen a lance used in a couched manner (Parthian vs. Sassanis heavy cavalry), I think that the most common way of using the spear was either overarm or with two hands.

Heavy cavalry without shields would be covered in armour so that a shield would not be necessary. I a melee against shield-bearing cavalry that could be a disadvantage, but since I expect that shield-bearing lighter cavalry would therefore be more vulnerable, that might have been a lesser problem.

I dont know whether such very heavy cavalry would as a rule be 'protected' by light cavalry though.