Why Btonze Age?

[Minimalist]

Again, its a vestigial reminder of knights in armor, you know how romantic the French can be.  In fairness though, the cuirass was "proofed" against pistol bullets and since cavalry was ideally supposed to fight other cavalry and they would have been armed with pistol and saber one could argue that it would provide protection against that threat.  It would probably stop a musket ball at long range too, but there it is so much more likely that you'd hit the horse if you hit anything.