Building a cavalryman vs. building a charioteer

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Depends a bit on how the kontos/lance is used. My impression is that cataphracts probably mostly used it for two-handed overarm stabbing attacks - classic spear fighting only more so.

We have illustrations showing cataphracts using couched lances. They used the same horned saddles that the Romans used.

The couched lance charge, the thing which had Anna Comnena saying that a Frankish knight could put a hole in the walls of Babylon, is going to need some quite rugged bracing - a well-made horned saddle at minimum, and I can't quite suppress the feeling that stirrups would help

Richard Alvarez wrote a decent article explaining why the stirrup contributed little to the effectiveness of couched lance combat.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180906...cles/shock.php

"The moment of impact however, tends to pull the rider's feet up and back - or otherwise 'out' of the stirrups."