I don’t understand why Horses wouldn’t be afraid to charge into a wall of humans with weapons. And if they would do it, wouldn’t the first row tumble and all the other incoming horses would trip over them resulting in a domino effect?
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There’s an anecdote from Napoleons March on Russia where he needed more horses because numbers are more intimidating than trained horses. In order to get such numbers he took horses from all sources (except Prussia because he’s racist) so military horses, farm horses, even horses too weak for both of those and to train them he had his men shoot guns and cannons right in front of the horses until they stopped panicking. Then he just had to get those horses to carry loads they couldn’t carry because he was going senile and incompetent. To answer one of your questions.
Depends somewhat on what time period you’re talking about, and what cavalry unit you’re talking about. Ancient Macedonian cavalry for example used double ended spears in their charge, while the common medieval cavalry used lances which they would have to drop after hitting someone. Cavalry charges could also be with sword or saber, particularly common in the 18-20th centuries.
As to answer you’re question about horses charging enemy weapons, you are correct to some degree. War horses would be specifically trained to not be as skittish around weapons, but even a trained warhorse won’t be suicidal. A big decider if a cavalry charge was successful or not was how well the infantry they were charging held their position. You ask about horses charging a wall of humans but think of the reverse. You see a wall a horses charging towards you, even if you manage to avoid the enemy weapon, you’re almost certainly going to be trampled by the hooves of the horses. Many people are going to see a cavalry charge and break formation trying to get the hell out of there.
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