heavy cavalry engaging heavy cavalry

[Urselius]

I'm impressed with this thread. We are looking at exactly how aggressive horses could be... and are. If the medieval horse could be trained to bite and trample, then ancient horses had the same capabilities. These are not shy mounts who swerved away from an opponent, as previously assumed.

I think there is a difference between a horse's behaviour when charging at speed and when in a melee situation. It would be very difficult indeed to induce a horse to bodily run at another horse head on, or to charge directly at infantry in close formation. However, once hemmed in by other mounts, and pivoting in close melee combat , then a horse's (particularly a stallion's) aggressive instincts could be harnessed to aid the cavalryman.