Cavalry and chariots against infantry

[Domen]

Eduard, you keep repeating things like "throw his pony on the spears" and assuming that such attacks were suicidal for the cavalry horses and riders.

Yes, these are IMHO misconceptions on the part of Eduard. There are many misconceptions about cavalry charges - and this opinion of Eduard is IMO one of them. As a research material for this thread, I provide some links from other similar discussions on other internet fora below:

Cavalry not only could beat "regular spearmen" or "just spearmen", but there are also examples from history of cavalry defeating pikemen. Some of them (+ how it was achieved) are described here:

(I think that Eduard even participated in discussion from the 1st link below - unless it is another person with the same nick - a post of user with nick Ataman that I link below, was a reply to some Eduard):

http://archive.worldhistoria.com/polish-...page5.html

http://archive.worldhistoria.com/polish-...age12.html

http://www.radoslawsikora.republika.pl/m...Liubar.pdf

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthrea...596&page=4

http://www.militarium.net/forum/viewtopi...5&start=20

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.p...0#p1763150

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=463297

http://www.historum.com/medieval-byzanti...es-26.html

Perhaps there are much more of similar threads on various fora in the internet.

But generalizations are not good - cavalry constantly evolved and changed, improved or declined, over time. Ancient cavalry was not the same as Medieval, Medieval not the same as Early Modern, Early Modern not the same as Napoleonic. Then we have issues such as presence or lack of horned saddles, stirrups, armor (for men & horses). Type & length of melee weapons used. Tactics used. Etc.

Also this depends on region - being just Western-Centric is not a good idea. Concentrating on comparison to the Napoleonic period cavalry (while researching Ancient cavalry) is not a good idea too.