10-21-2006, 07:38 PM
From what I have learned, cavalry was most often used to flank infantry, using the swiftness and endurance of the horse to gain a position on one of the sides of a drawn up army. Thus, the cavalry were faced with a long line of men, strung out three to five deep over the field. They did NOT charge into the massed infantry (as often depicted in the medieval charges in movies like Braveheart, where the heavy horse charging was impaled on a wall of long wooden spears, using the horse as a tank, and I agree this is not something you get a horse to do easily, it takes a lot of training to get them to approach and jump a hedge!), but caused them to break solid formation by getting behind and to their sides, creating disturbance and havoc. This greatly helped their own infantry advancing on the enemy lines. Once broken and scattered by an infantry assault, again the speed of the horse was used to ride through the shattered formation and cut down the fleeing enemy in passing. Not a pretty picture, but an effective one to be sure. All of this was done mounted, and having seen demonstrations of horsemen performing in Roman saddles, I have no doubt as to the stability of riding without stirrups, they hacked through melons and threw spears just fine and with good accuracy :lol:
