There are training manuals from 16th-17th century that explains how it apparently was done.

Horses learned that shouting men with long pointy sticks were not dangerous and always moved away when a horse charged them. In modern times police horses are trained in the same way really. Firecrackers, men throwing tennis balls at them and shouting.

So if a rider wanted to charge head-on into a formation a horse would most likely do it. The problem is of course what happened when the infantry didn't panic and horses crashed into the men.

If the men were not in a very tight formation and had no long sticks then the horse would most likely just run down any man in that was so unfortunate to stand in its way.

If they were prepared and stood shoulder to shoulder, in the typical formation that infantry would use to receive a cavalry charge back then, and ready with spears (with at least the front rank jamming their spear-butts into the ground)then my guess is that cavalry could get heavy losses.

It would probably be the rider that saw it would be suicide and stop the horse as the horse would just think the men would move away as it they always did in training.

Apparently there is one 16th century story of a rider whose horse survived the impact against one pikeblock only to go after next pikeblock and the rider couldn't stop the horse and had to jump off it. It was presumed dead but they found it alive after the battle. It had 2 pike wounds and 20 sword wounds to its head. It apparently hated swords after that and would attack any sword armed man on sight. Sure it survived but it might not have been suitable as a warhorse anymore as it knew what to expect and reacted by being very aggressive.

I don't know if that is a typical reaction from a warhorse when it faced the realities of enemy foot soldiers.


CBR