I remember when I first played native, a couple years ago. It was my VERY first time, didn't even play single player except the tutorial. I logged in to a TDM server and picked a cav class right away. "Oh, this is going to be awesome!" I said to myself. I got a hunter horse (destrier equivalent I think), spotted an enemy with a 2h weapon, and charged head-long towards him.
Believe it or not, the adrenaline was pumping already. The sound of the pounding hooves and the feeling of speed racing towards the enemy was quite exciting. I couldn't wait! "I'm so going to run his ass over! I can't believe he's just standing there! LOL I'll make paste of this guy!!" I was at top speed and couldn't wait to trample this dumb player into the ground and score my 1st kill.
He swung his sword and killed both me and my horse in 1 hit.
I thought it was a fluke and tried several more times. Why can't my horse trample a player like...well...like a horse would trample a man? Finally I gave up. "Cav is kinda shitty, isn't it?" I asked. "yeah" they said.
Just a couple months later I started Crpg, and I have been ever since. Cav is a little better here. Still dies easily and has to be played smartly if you don't want to be de-horsed while you blink. You still can't approach infantry head on unless they have a 1h weapon.
I've played cav 4 gens. The ONLY 2 good uses for bumping is to mess up enemy players that are engaged in melee so your team-mates can kill them, or stagger players that are about to slash/stab the shit out of you and your horse. If you try to use it to actually damage or kill enemy players, you are doing it wrong. Good luck with that. As a consolation, it causes a bit of damage if you miss your target. It's a delay/frustrate tool, not a damage dealing tool.
Just thought I'd share.