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.

Bro of college roommate was horsing around with others in a parking lot, the car he was sitting on moved, he fell off the hood and hit his head. Lungs collapsed, coma, dead in a week.

Bony bits and facial scars - it is as ita says. I managed to split open my softball teammate's cheek with a lame-o groundball during some batting practice a couple weeks ago. We were on a crappy hard lumpy field and the ball took a bad hop and bopped him in the left cheek. Left a little scrape on the meaty part of his cheek, but split it open right on top of the cheekbone. Nine stitches - one inside and 8 outside.

I've got the standard issue scar-under-the-chin, with four giant stitch marks, possibly acheived via bunkbed dismount, circa 1970. Gotta love army health care (Dad was army back then).

Just got back from the flu shot--no owies for me! I didn't even notice that the shot was happening.

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 one. Bike crash.

it is as ita says

almost got through this whole sentence with only 4 letters.

I seem to have a ball-up-and-roll instinct that has helped me avoid any scarring of the chin.