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Plus, expert horse riding requires lots of practice from a young age. The steppe warriors, such as the Mongols and the Comanche, managed this. Regular farmers

Plus, expert horse riding requires lots of practice from a young age. The steppe warriors, such as the Mongols and the Comanche, managed this. Regular farmers would not. There was a medieval French saying to the effect of 'if they are not an expert rider by puberty, they can never be a knight'.

worldvoyageur 3y ago
About twenty five years ago on a visit to an out of the way place in northern China I was able to see a demonstration of Mongolian horse riding skill. The target audience was the local tourists. The performers looked like ill-dressed scrawny young adults, male and female. All well shorter than the typical person of northern European background. They were riding equally scrawny looking ponies in an arena about the size of a hockey rink. The kids did stuff like ride standing on the pony as it galloped around the field, then would flip to be sideways on the horse, with the body of the pony completely blocking them from one side. They'd fire arrows at full gallop, hiting tiny targets as they would abruptly change direction. That's when my understanding of Atilla the Hun and Ghenghis Khan went beyond what I'd read in books.
- patcon 3y ago
  I'm imagining that it would be something like if Cirque de Soleil was trying to kill me. It sounds funny at first, but would honestly be nightmare fuel. It would probably feel like an unstoppable, inhuman force.
  - azmodeus 3y ago
    Which is the way these archers were described historically. There was a common saying: Lord, save us from the arrows of the Hungarians Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulcs%C3%BA_(chieftain)#:~:text=During%20these%20military%20campaigns%2C%20the,%22)%20Modena%2C%20925%20AD https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulcs%C3%BA_(chieftain)#:~:t....
alexpotato 3y ago
The book Empire of the Summer Moon goes into a lot of great detail about how skilled the Comanche were at horseback riding and fighting from a mounted position. Highly recommend it for this specific reason and as a great historical book in general.

worldvoyageur 3y ago

About twenty five years ago on a visit to an out of the way place in northern China I was able to see a demonstration of Mongolian horse riding skill. The target audience was the local tourists. The performers looked like ill-dressed scrawny young adults, male and female. All well shorter than the typical person of northern European background. They were riding equally scrawny looking ponies in an arena about the size of a hockey rink. The kids did stuff like ride standing on the pony as it galloped around the field, then would flip to be sideways on the horse, with the body of the pony completely blocking them from one side. They'd fire arrows at full gallop, hiting tiny targets as they would abruptly change direction. That's when my understanding of Atilla the Hun and Ghenghis Khan went beyond what I'd read in books.

patcon 3y ago
I'm imagining that it would be something like if Cirque de Soleil was trying to kill me. It sounds funny at first, but would honestly be nightmare fuel. It would probably feel like an unstoppable, inhuman force.
- azmodeus 3y ago
  Which is the way these archers were described historically. There was a common saying: Lord, save us from the arrows of the Hungarians Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulcs%C3%BA_(chieftain)#:~:text=During%20these%20military%20campaigns%2C%20the,%22)%20Modena%2C%20925%20AD https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulcs%C3%BA_(chieftain)#:~:t....

alexpotato 3y ago

The book Empire of the Summer Moon goes into a lot of great detail about how skilled the Comanche were at horseback riding and fighting from a mounted position. Highly recommend it for this specific reason and as a great historical book in general.