62
I would contend that we tend to overestimate the effectiveness of bows vs armour, and that the armour would likely prevent at least some percentage of the damage to the mount.
If we look at the wiki article on Barding we find the following (emphasis mine):
During the Late Middle Ages as armour protection for knights became
more effective, their mounts ...
45
Whenever 20th century cavalry comes up, it often gets confused with mounted infantry. So let's clear that up.
Cavalry is trained to fight from horseback using pistol, sabre, carbine, lance, and the horse itself. Its primary purpose is cross open terrain quickly, crash through the enemy line, and cause disarray. If they can do this from an open flank, rather ...
33
The situation is complex. While the pike-or-equivalent must be of a sufficient length and density to be effective against cavalry, the longer the weapon the more difficult it is to adjust formation and facing. Cavalry's most effective weapon on the battlefield is its speed. A mass of spearmen facing one direction are easily flanked and broken up, and then ...
28
So, if Genghis Khan's military was so superior to European knights and China's military, why weren't earlier powers, like Rome, crushed by similar weapons and tactics?
Genghis Khan was far from the first one to use mounted archers. In the Classical Age, Persians/Parthians were famed for the use of this weapon. And they used it to inflict some painful ...
28
Most probably not. Tactics of Viking warfare didn't really lend itself to cavalry combat.
Before the end of the 11th century the Vikings fought mainly on foot. Their horses were small and they had no real cavalry. Documentary sources do report horses occasionally being used by Viking leaders in battle, but more usually they served as a rapid means of ...
26
An important aspect that seems to be neglected in many of the answers here is that while technical aspects cannot be completely dismissed, they are secondary to other concerns.
To be specific, the primary weapon of heavy cavalry is its momentum, while heavy infantry (among which musketeers from 18th century onward are counted) relies on its discipline in ...
19
Knights didn't just face longbows. There were also swords, pikes, maces etc. on the battlefield and good plate armor also protected against firearms. Two knights fighting on the battlefield - they're trying to hit each other but sometimes the horses get hit instead.. There's an article called Armour which says a lot about this. For example,
The horse was ...
17
Several reasons. First and foremost, they perform the same role on the battlefield, providing a fast moving spearhead.
Second, and related, many of the units were cavalry units before getting tanks, they just exchanged their horses for tanks.
Artillery exchanged guns pulled by horses (and trucks) with self propelled guns (at least part of them, most armies ...
16
Your question is underpinned by a key misunderstanding of the course of an ancient or medieval battle: the slaughter occurs in the pursuit (or endgame if you will), not what might be termed the battle proper (or midgame).
Prior to the invention of artillery, and breech-loading and automatic rifles, very little death is dealt out during the main course of ...
15
Short Answer
Generally, there is no evidence in medieval sources for the widespread use of cavalry or horsemen in battle by the Vikings. The Vikings in Western Europe (from the late 8th century to the late 11th century) generally fought on foot. However, there are a small number of recorded cases on the continent (Francia, northern Germany) and in Ireland ...
14
First the supply issue : The biggest reason for Horse archer scarcity is the training curve in becoming a mounted archer. It's not a simple task, you need to be able to ride and control your horse with only your legs while drawing a bow and accurately firing all while the horse moves...not a simple feat by any means.
Roman (and Greek) society were founded ...
13
That's an overly simplistic way of thinking about cavalry.
Battles usually didn't focus on cavalry charges (though they often were used as shock operations during battles) but massed infantry holding terrain.
Cavalry was more often use for scouting, rapid flanking actions, harassing rear guard units, and rapid positioning of troops where they were needed.
...
12
Lighter, Faster Cavalry.
The heavier the cavalry, the harder it is to maintain speed and perform sharp maneuvers. At the battle of Turin, Constantine used light cavalry with iron-tipped clubs to attack the flanks of Cataphracts. Ancient cavalry rode horses without Stirrups, meaning clubs or weapons with blunt force behind them stood a fair chance of knocking ...
12
There are no reports from the 13th cavalry division, luckily however all is described quite well in reports of the 15th cavalry division. Further I translated most important parts of that report:
At 01:00 an order was received to be ready to attack Kuschevsky at sunrise in cooperation with 2 regiments of 13th cavalry division and a separate tank brigade (...
12
The long bow was a particularly effective weapon against armored cavalry, and the French were surprised by this fact.
The (relatively thin) armor that you mentioned had earlier provided the horse some protection against "spears," particularly those wielded by enemy infantry. Although Swiss "pikes" (about 50 years into the future from the end of the Hundred ...
11
You are referring to the Schwarze Reiters (i.e. black riders), named after the dark armour they wore. This was a type of cavalry that appeared in Germany after the decline of the medieval lancers, but later became a generic name (usually shortened to just reiters) for German cavalry mercenaries.
Around the mid-16th century, advancements in firearms as well ...
11
The cavalry tactics could differ from century to century, yet when they got firearms, for sure, they had to learn quick swapping from firearm to a saber during the attack.
The Russian cavalry officer Nadezhda Durova (aka The Cavalry Maiden), who fought in Napoleonic wars, mentioned some details in her well-known memoirs. That is how she depicted the standard ...
10
I looked into this some more, and I'll share my findings here.
100 Miles Record
In the FEI Endurance Riding Competition senior level, horses travel about 100 miles in one day. The world record for a human going 100 miles was recently achieved by Zach Bitter, who went the distance over a track field in 11:47:21.
The world record for 100 miles by a horse, ...
10
Yes and no. Uniforms and rank insignia as we understand them didn't exist back then. It was very easy to see who was high(er) in rank, though. Members of the knightly class wore their coat of arms on their shield, clothing, barding and sometimes on top of their helmets.
It was very easy to see important nobles. The problem was what to do with them. The ...
9
Because lances were unwieldy but required significant training to be proficient in. Their usefulness was progressively declining against the increasingly attractive (and cost-effective) firearms.
Because of the nature of the weapon, and the training required to produce a proficient lancer, it had generally fallen from use by the mid 17th century.
- ...
9
Using the Wikipedia article as source, lances were indeed once-use items for shock attacks. If they hadn't splintered then they were sure to have gotten stuck, so they were intended to be dropped.
This is with the heavy lances most people seem to have in mind, when they think of a charge by heavily armoured knights.
However, anecdotal, I'm friends with ...
9
Sometimes Soviet Army (especially during the first two years of the war agains Germany, 1941-43) successfully used its cavalry units. Success depended on many factors including tactical skills of its commanders (General Below for instance was quite successful), terrain (dense forest), weather (heavy rain, deep snow), roads (deep mud), time of operations (...
9
No. War horses are simply horses. Perhaps a little bit finicky with eating but not overly so.
The reason why they were fed hay is different. You need a LOT of fields with edible grass to daily feed them. Those pastures have to be guarded, lest the horses run away or the enemy runs away with your horses. Grass must be ready for consumption and for some ...
8
Without getting too involved in a discussion of terminal ballistics, the Napoleonic period armour certainly offered some protection against firearms, but it was only effective up to a point. This picture shows a a French cavalry cuirass (a breastplate worn as body armour) from Waterloo on display in the Musée de l’Armée:
A cannonball from a British 9lb ...
8
The advantage of wearing cuirass was obviously protection. As you noted, it could deflect pistol shots, and in theory even muskets at distance. Perhaps the main benefit however, was in fact against other horsemen. Cavalry battles in this period often amounted to individual melee, and like the armour of old, the cuirass offered some defence against enemy ...
8
Cost. It takes years of training to become a proficient foot archer, and much longer to become a mounted archer. A cavalryman is always far more expensive because of his mounts (plural; they usually had between 2 and 6 mounts per horseman).
Mounted archers is the solution to most of your military problems. Everybody knew that, but most had two huge ...
7
British Cavalry was surprising successful on the occasions it was employed by local commanders in small scale attacks exploiting gaps in the German defensive lines after the Germans had withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line from late 1916 onwards. Despite what many ill-informed commentators say, many citing quite erroneous accounts by eye-witnesses who get the ...
7
Not sure if anyone will read this, but...
From Baidu (https://baike.baidu.com/item/连环计/5842#ref_[2]_5340118):
1.毕再遇连环计
“Bi Zaiyu Uses Chain Stratagems”
宋代将领毕再遇就曾经运用连环计，打过漂亮的仗。他分析金人强悍，骑兵尤其勇猛，如果对面交战往往造成重大伤亡。
“The Song Dynasty general Bi Zaiyu once used a Chain Stratagem to fight a flawless battle. He realized that the Jins were fierce, especially ...
6
The Takeda attack destroyed the first palisades, but was unable to break through much further. Their army ended up smashing themselves against the second line. I can see how that could be described as "sappers" failing before the Oda defences.
On the other hand, the battle was most likely not a cavalry charge. Despite popular mythology, riders made up less ...
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