When a horse dies in the field in a strat battle it gains a -1.
So a +3 rouncey goes +2,+1,0. When a horse hits -1 it is removed from your gear pool. If you loose a battle all "injured" horses are removed.
I would like to see horses get back in the fight, but they go down like it ain't no thing to a half organised team with a couple of pikes. Huge horse formations get wiped awfully fast.
So I think by giving horses a couple of rounds in the field we will see people using them a bit more and a bit more tactically.