Mounted archery is a form of archery that involves shooting arrows while on horseback.Govaerts, S. (2024). Horse Archery in Medieval Northwestern Europe, 400-1500: A Study of a Forgotten Military Tradition. Journal of Medieval Military History, 22, 1-43. A horse archer is a person who does mounted archery.Hansard, G. A. (1841). The Book of Archery: Being the Complete History and Practice of the Art, Ancient and Modern... London: HG Bohn. Archery has occasionally been used from the backs of other riding animals. In large open areas, mounted archery was a highly successful technique for hunting, for protecting herds, and for war. It was a defining characteristic of the Eurasian nomads during antiquity and the medieval period, as well as the Iranian peoples such as the Alans, Sarmatians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Massagetae, Parthians, and Persians in Antiquity, and by the Hungarians, Mongols, Chinese, and Turkic peoples during the Middle Ages. The expansion of these cultures have had a great influence on other geographical regions including Eastern Europe, West Asia, and East Asia.Wood, M. T. (2015). Mounted Archery in Japan: Yabusame and the Modern Setting (Master's thesis).Hacker, B. C. (2015). Mounted Archery and Firearms: Late Medieval Muslim Military Technology Reconsidered. Vulcan, 3(1), 42-65.Berthon, W., Tihanyi, B., Kis, L., Révész, L., Coqueugniot, H., Dutour, O., & Pálfi, G. (2019). Horse riding and the shape of the acetabulum: Insights from the bioarchaeological analysis of early Hungarian mounted archers (10th century). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 29(1), 117-126. In East Asia, horse archery came to be particularly honored in the samurai tradition of Japan, where horse archery is called Yabusame.
The term mounted archer occurs in medieval English sources to describe a soldier who rode to battle but who dismounted to shoot, similar to the later firearm-equipped dragoons.Bell, A. R., Curry, A., & King, A. (2013). The soldier in later medieval England. OUP Oxford.McAllister, D. W. (1993). Formidable genus armorum: the horse archers of the Roman Imperial Army (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).Gibbs, S. (2016). The service patterns and social-economic status of English archers, 1367-1417: The evidence of the muster rolls and poll tax returns (Doctoral dissertation, University of Reading). Horse archer is the term used more specifically to describe a warrior who shoots from the saddle at the gallop.Azzaroli, A. (1985). An early history of horsemanship. Brill. Another term, "horseback archery", has crept into modern use.
Horse archery developed separately among the people of the South American pampas and the North American prairies following the introduction of domesticated horses to the continent; the Comanches were especially skilled.T. R. Fehrenbach. Comanches, the history of a people. Vintage Books. London, 2007. . First published in the US by Alfred Knopf, 1974. Page 124.
Basic features
Since using a bow requires the rider to let go of the reins with both hands, horse archers need superb equestrian skills if they are to shoot on the move.Charles, D. (2015). Archery: Skills. Tactics. Techniques. Crowood. The natives of large grassland areas used horse archery for hunting, for protecting their herds, and for war.Mackay-Smith, A., Druesedow, J. R., Druesedow, J. L., & Ryder, T. (1984). Man and the horse: an illustrated history of equestrian apparel. Metropolitan museum of art.Mitchell, P. (2015). Horse nations: the worldwide impact of the horse on indigenous societies post-1492. OUP Oxford. Horse archery was for many groups a basic survival skill, and additionally made each able-bodied man, at need, a highly mobile warrior.O'Connell, R. L. (2002). Soul of the sword: an illustrated history of weaponry and warfare from prehistory to the present. Simon and Schuster. The buffalo hunts of the North American prairies may be the best-recorded examples of bowhunting by horse archers.
In battle, light horse archers were typically skirmishers, lightly armed missile troops capable of moving swiftly to avoid close combat or to deliver a rapid blow to the flanks or rear of the foe.Jones, A. Elements of Military Strategy. Captain Robert G. Carter described the experience of facing Quanah Parker's forces: "an irregular line of swirling warriors, all rapidly moving in right and left hand circles.. while advancing, to the right or left, and as rapidly concentrating... in the centre... and their falling back in the same manner...all was most puzzling to our... veterans who had never witnessed such tactical maneuvers, or such a flexible line of skirmishers".Carter, Captain R. G. On the border with Mackenzie, or Winning West Texas from the Comanches. p 289-290. New York, Antiquarian Press, 1961 (First published 1935). As quoted in Los Comanches. The Horse People, 1751-1845. Stanley Noyes. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 1993 p. 221-222.
In the tactic of the Parthian shot the rider would retreat from the enemy while turning his upper body and shooting backward.Elton, H. (2024). Understanding Ancient Battle: Combat in the Classical World from the Unit Commander's Perspective.Rostovtzeff, M. (1943). The Parthian Shot. American Journal of Archaeology, 47(2), 174-187. Due to the superior speed of mounted archers, troops under attack from horse archers were unable to respond to the threat if they did not have ranged weapons of their own.Alofs, E. (2015). Studies on Mounted Warfare in Asia IV: The Turanian Tradition–The Horse Archers of Inner Asia, c. ce 550–1350. War in History, 22(3), 274-297. Constant harassment would result in casualties, morale drop and disruption of the formation.Gregoratti, L. (2024). The Arsacids vs. Rome (First to Third Centuries CE): Observations on Parthian Tactics and Warfare. Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires, 9, 366. Any attempts to charge the archers would also slow the entire army down.Chrissanthos, S. G. (2008). Warfare in the ancient world: from the Bronze Age to the fall of Rome. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
An example of these tactics comes from an attack on Comanche horse archers by a group of Texas Rangers, who were saved by their muzzle-loading firearms and by a convenient terrain feature.Wilson, R. L. (2015). The peacemakers: arms and adventure in the American West. Simon and Schuster. Fifty Rangers armed with guns met about 20 Comanche hunters who were hunting buffalo and attacked them.Dukes, D. (2020). Firearms of the Texas Rangers: From the Frontier Era to the Modern Age. University of North Texas Press. The Comanches fled, easily keeping clear of the Rangers, for several miles across the open prairie. They led the Rangers into a stronger force of two hundred.Jones, K. (2017). The story of Comanche: horsepower, heroism and the conquest of the American West. War & Society, 36(3), 156-181. The Rangers immediately retreated, only to discover they had committed a classic error in fighting mounted archers: the Comanches pursued in turn, able to shoot what seemed like clouds of arrows.Biggers, D. H. (1991). Buffalo guns & barbed wire: two frontier accounts. Texas Tech University Press. The Rangers found a ravine where they could shoot at the Comanche from cover.Gard, W. (2015). Rawhide Texas. University of Oklahoma Press. The horse archers did not charge but kept the Rangers under siege until seven of them were dead or dying, whereupon the Rangers retreated but claimed victory.T.R. Fehrenbach. Comanches, the history of a people. Vintage Books. London, 2007. . First published in the US by Alfred Knopf, 1974.
Heavy horse archers Horse archers may be either light, such as Scythian, Hun, Parthian, Cuman, or Pecheneg horsemen, or heavy, such as Byzantine kavallarioi, Turkish timariots, Russian druzhina and Japanese samurai. Heavy horse archers typically fought as formed units. Instead of harassing without ever making contact, they shot in volleys, weakening the enemy before they charged. In addition to bows, they often also carried close combat weapons, such as lances or spears.Weapons: A pictorial history. JHU Press, 1954.Weir, W. (2019). 50 weapons that changed warfare. Permuted Press. Some nations, like medieval Mongols, Hungarians and Cumans, fielded both light and heavy horse archers.Esposito, G. (2024). Armies of the Steppe Nomads, 376–1227: from the Coming of Attila's Huns to the Death of Genghis, Great Khan of the Mongols. Pen and Sword Military. In some armies, such as those of the Parthians, Palmyrans, and the Teutonic Order of Knights, the mounted troops consisted of both super-heavy troops (cataphracts and knights) without bows, and light horse archers.Bennett, M. (1998). The hutchinson dictionary of ancient & medieval warfare. Taylor & Francis.
Appearance in history
Horse archery first developed during the Iron Age, gradually replacing the Bronze Age chariot.
The earliest depictions are found in the artwork of the Neo-Assyrian Empire of about the 9th century BC and reflect the incursions of the early Iranian peoples.Cantrell, D. O. D. (2011). The horsemen of Israel: horses and chariotry in monarchic Israel (ninth-eighth centuries BCE). Penn State Press.
Early horse archery, depicted on the Assyrian carvings, involved two riders, one controlling both horses while the second shot. Heavy horse archers first appeared in the Assyrian army in the 7th century BC after abandoning chariot warfare and formed a link between light skirmishing cavalrymen and heavy cataphract cavalry.Noble, D. (2015). Dawn of the Horse Warriors: Chariot and Cavalry Warfare, 3000-600BC.Anderson, E. B. (2016). Cataphracts: knights of the ancient eastern empires. Grub Street Publishers.Black, J. Cavalry Warfare. The heavy horse archers usually had mail or lamellar armor and helmets, and sometimes even their horses were armored.Bivar, A. D. H. (1972). Cavalry equipment and tactics on the Euphrates frontier. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 26, 271-291.
Skirmishing requires vast areas of free space to run, maneuver, and flee, and if the terrain is close, light horse archers can be charged and defeated easily. Light horse archers are also very vulnerable to foot archers and crossbowmen, who are smaller targets and can outshoot horsemen. Large armies very seldom relied solely on skirmishing horse archers, but there are many examples of victories in which horse archers played a leading part. The Roman general Crassus led a large army, with inadequate cavalry and missile troops, to catastrophe against Parthian horse archers and cataphracts at the Battle of Carrhae.Plutarch's Lives: Crassus, Perseus tufts The Persian king Darius the Great led a campaign against the mounted Scythians, who refused to engage in pitched battle; Darius conquered and occupied land but lost enough troops and supplies that he was compelled to withdraw. Darius, however, kept the lands he had conquered.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Persian general Mardonius used horse archers to attack and harass his opponents during the Battle of Plataea, which was won by the Greeks. Philip of Macedon scored an epic victory against the Scythians residing north of the Danube, killing their king, Ateas, and causing their kingdom to fall apart thereafter. Alexander the Great defeated Scythians/Sakas in 329 BC at the Battle of Jaxartes, at the Syr Darya river. Later on, Alexander himself used mounted archers recruited among the Scythians and Dahae, during the Greek invasion of India.Ashley. p. 35.