Fully half the men I have ever met have a scar on or just under the points of their chins (this is less common among women, who apparently do not get caught up in horse-falls or explosions nearly as much)

I have two (scars, not horse-falls or explosions), but neither of them would be visible, so they're of no real value in a movie.

I do sometimes see scrapes along the plane of a cheekbone, when the possessor of the face in question is especially cheekbonealicious. It makes me laugh and laugh, as if people only injure their faces along that one plane, like being stuffed into a deli slicer.

Well, the reason you see the brow stuff is because the skin splits much more easily if there's bone right underneath. I'm not going to get those sorts of scrapes anywhere lower on unless I'm going against something very rough, but someone with magnificent cheekbones will definitely be more likely. Especially if you have time to reflexively turn and protect the nose.

I have a chickenpox scar on my eyebrow. NSM with the dashing.

God, I wish today were done.

Like how action heroes have artistic cuts through eyebrows

I have one of those. Not from anything particularly action-oriented. Or artistic, for that matter.

If you're cutting stuff out of your diet to test its effects on migraines, how long do you have to go to make sure it's effective? A week? Two weeks? Month? Three months?

My nutritionist wants to do an elimination diet to check for food sensitivities with me at some point, that involves cutting out all the potential trigger foods for two weeks, then taking the time to reintroduce them one by one back into my system to see how I react to them. It's not for migraines though.

cutting out all the potential trigger foods for two weeks

That sounds reasonable (if torturous). I'm going to start with chocolate -- that's how bad a mood I'm in.

I have a scar on my forehead from being dropped on my head as a baby. By my sister. Who still laughs about it.

Fully half the men I have ever met have a scar on or just under the points of their chins (this is less common among women, who apparently do not get caught up in horse-falls or explosions nearly as much)

I thought this was very common for men and women, because of the bone and skin interaction ita mentioned. I know I have one, and I can think of at least 4 other women I know who do as well. I got mine falling out of bed when I was 4 or so.

tommyrot, allyson, jesse, ginger, etc... thanks.

IT guy fixed it. Said its possible the thing was already sitting here. No one is mad.

If the rider falls and breaks his neck that could be pretty instant and you could describe the sadly gruesome angle of his head. It doesn't have to be that bad a fall for him to land wrong, he just needs to get caught on something.

How fast did they ride when on patrol? If they're out looking for things, I wouldn't expect it to be very fast.

Not super-fast, but I could always have them cantering home once the patrol is done. And since they're not expecting to encounter trouble, I could always put him on a new horse he just bought (he's an officer, so he'd have his own horses instead of/in addition to the regiment's horses) who hadn't yet acquired the proper cavalry unflappability and could therefore shy or get spooked.

To be honest, I don't think there is a realistic way for you to have that happen in that situation.

Sigh. I need to do something. I have to kill this character, and suddenly. In the current version, they blunder into a French patrol, but it's been brought home to me rather forcibly that if I want to do it that way, I need a greater sense of menace and awareness of the enemy army out there than I really want for the scene as a whole--I'm going for, "Here we are marching on this godawful hot day even though we haven't seen the Frogs in weeks because the generals in all their dubious wisdom have ordered us to do so." Sticking the French Patrol Ex Machina into the picture is spoiling that, but the guy still has to die, and by the end of Ch. 1.

I think you can be killed instantly - or at least rendered unconscious instantly with death following quickly - by a well-placed blow to the temple.

Back of the head is more likely for a quick death. That's the part of the brain that keeps you breathing.

I have a scar on the bottom of my chin, and also one on my cheekbone.