What did a cavalry charge really look like? I was reading recently that the kind of charges depicted in movies and games like Total War are impossible because horses are timid and will stop before running into a huge spear wall or even a mass of men in general, and that the horses would crash into the row of horses in front of them if they went at full gallop resulting in a huge pileup. The theory is that the horses would move at a trot or slow canter at best and then the rider would engage in melee without the horse actually running into anyone. The depiction of cavalry formations acting like giant bulldozers and killing primarily with momentum would be false under this paradigm. What is the reality? How can it be possible for something in pre-modern warfare as common as cavalry charges to have been a meme all along?
Did Cavalry Charges Actually Happen?
They happen in your mom's bedroom every night
Bumping with /comfy/ Total War pic.
Whoever wrote that doesn't know very much about horses. Horses are like dogs, the right trainer and rider can get them to run face-first into a brick wall.
But no, it wouldn't have been quite like movies because it's inefficient and would indeed cause some movement issues. It would have been much more coordinated and tactful than just "lol let's just ride right into them. However, frontal assaults with horses did happen and there's plenty of weaponry designed for killing horses and unseating riders that proves it. The evolution of the stirrup and saddle also reflects this.
Not every horse is a warhorse man
Alpha horses are hardcore
Alpha horses will rape male horses to assert dominance in the herd
P-pics
Read 'The Face Of Battle' and find-out, you lazy S-oy
It’s probably something inbetween. I would say it’s like a big game of chicken. If the infantry really stay put the horses will try to stop at the last second, however undisciplined formations of infantry would probably panic and break just before the horses would hit allowing the riders to stab them in the back. Even trained humans may involuntarily leap out of the way by pure instinct.
Might look something like this.
Rome tw is gay
Theres a reason shock cavarly has shock in the name.
Striups, lances and armour on the horse would make a charge irresistable for the average infranty man. All but the most experianced would waver with one baring down on them and break formation.
Modern horses are bred to be tamer, old warhorses were bred to be extremely agressive.
There was a horse whose rider documented his time in the napoleonic wars, his horse would bite and kick soliders to death, and anyone trying to bayonet just wound it up more.