I believe you are right about the speed at which the cavalry would get to the battle line. I think that horses do not like to charge into solid things. And horses that see a wall of men wouldn't know that the wall was made up of things that it could probably knock down. Therefore the horse would veer away from the wall of men in any case.
From personal experience, it takes months to train a horse that it can move an object the same size as itself. They are very skitish creatures. And before you guys tear me apart, yes I understand that these were battle trained horses. Fine. Battle trained horses of the time were expensive and would not have been wasted charging into bayonets unless there was no other alternative. Even at Waterloo, the British and French cavalry veered away from the infantry squares of the opposing army instead of charging home.
SG
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