Not to sound like an ignorant but what is the shield bonus you people are mentioning? There's so much in Warband and cRPG I still don't know about...
Regardless, I'm with what someone previously said (I think it was Kafein): most maps just don't allow proper cavalry formations and teamwork. They either have huge hills or are filled with tree trunks, rocks or anything that stops your horse at the slightest bump (if it's not one of those village maps that pretty much negate cav). However, it would be really nice to see heavy cav work as a team. As it is right now, they end up riding around defenseless 1 handers or rangers picking them off with no effort in a 1 on 1 (which looks pretty silly and absurd from my perspective). Sadly, I can't really think of anything to avoid this myself, although reducing their turn sounds good to me.
Also, I'm no moderator but please calm down, Shanghai. You sound a tad too hostile in my opinion.