@Bunduqdari: Not at all boring. I've never killed faster than I've done with my tweaked spear (relax resident flamers, I am not cheater-who-thinks-he's-badass... the southern glaive is still utterly superior in basically everything and the Knight's Lance and Honor Lance still beats the Iron Spear's range heavily)
You're right though, even if I've tweaked the stats of the Black Iron Spear to be slightly better it's still not very trustworthy on the ground. However, I've begun using a certain technique that makes it very hard for melee troops to hit me.
What I do is that instead of charging directly at my enemy with the spear, I turn to the left a few metres before I reach them and then hit the enemy with the spear's full length while extending my arm straight to the right of my horse, my spear hits the enemy as they pass on the right side of the horse.
I lose a whole lot of speed bonus this way, but since I don't rush straight towards the enemy I don't get caught in any of the usual horse-traps (e.g, being blocked and then getting the horse slashed while it passes the enemy, or getting the horse stabbed in the front and stopping completely)
However... there are of course pesky archers and people who throw stuff at me... if I get dehorsed then I usually block with my shield and walk backwards towards support troops like the chicken I am. I don't often get dehorsed though.
If there are only a couple of enemies I put my shield away and go 2-handed Iron Spear. Feels pretty badass but risky as hell.