Quote Originally Posted by jerby
then why doesn't regular cav run amok?

btw just edited, changed the chariots 'bonus' against elphant from -47 to -10. now two/three chariots can take down 1 war-elie
Regular cavs DID run amok, but not as often as chariots. Horses require much training before they can be near large groups of people without being scared. I also believe cavalry horses got ear protection to muffle all sounds, at least during the Medieval period that is.

Apart from that, I can only guess. The horse is maybe easier to comfort when the rider is on top of it than when he isn't. Maybe the chariots also tended to keep their momentum and catch up with the horses sometimes, hitting their legs, I don't know... It depends on how they were attached to the horse. An alternative is that they were attached to a horse in a way that made a horse that slowed down be sort of shoved forward by the remaning momentum of the chariot, something that maybe scared them?