As I understand it cav has received a nerf, and other things HA and throwing buffed. I am not really sure why. Throwers have been quite effective in my experience. Cav on the other hand, fairly good if the player is skilled. I do not understand the reason for nerf. If you are really thinking about what your doing and working with your team you'll be fine. Cav usually hits people who aren't paying attention. If we are trying to bring cav down a notch to make them easier to deal with, that doesn't make sense to me. They are already pretty easy to deal with with the right weapons. I'm sorry, but if you are a cudgel fiend or a shielder, you should not be good at fighting cav. Go find a polearm to buddy up with. Medieval warfare was not designed to be a fair even playing field. You have to use your wits and your skills (build) in a tactically smart way. Don't fight in an area where you are naturally weak and expect it to work out well.
The other thing i don't like about very high requirements (like 8 riding for certain horses) is that it railroads people into specialized builds to be effective and keep up with builds that are dedicated towards one purpose. Part of the fun for crpg, I think, is being able to do more than one thing. If not, then why don't we just have pre-set classes like native? I think building unique builds should be an important and protected part of crpg.