( 2007 - 09 - 05 17 : 07 : 19 , 11225 회 읽 음 ) 
 A 13 th - century Mongol saddle coverFirst it was not considered effectively to use weapons on horseback . Early riders dismounted for warfare . For a long time riders and charioteers worked alongside in the cavalry . While early horsemen dismounted for any combat , the troops in a chariot didn ` t necessarily . It was not possible to draw horizontally an infantry bow on horseback , so archers dismounted to shoot their bows . This tactic prevailed , although composite bows enabled to shoot from horseback . Infantry longbows still could be made more powerful and were better to aim at long distances . Mongolian troops had a Buryatian longbow , the strongest known longbow , for showering the enemy with arrows from a save distance . First attempts to shoot from horseback were made by drawing the bow vertically , but this way less energy could be stored . The aim on horseback was better than in a jiggling chariot , after it was discovered to shoot while all hoofes of the horse were in the air . Still an archer in a chariot could shoot potentially stronger infantry bows . Around the Meditaranean javelins were employed as powerful ranged weapon for example by Numidia ` s light cavalry and the heavy cataphracts . 
 Early saddles had no abdominal belt , nor were they high enough to charge savely with full force . The sarissae , lances and more often spears of cavalry were therefore used as thrusting and cutting weapon with a limited jolt . Stirrups and spurs improved the ability of riders to act fast and secure in melées and manoeuvres demanding agility . An outstanding example of combined arms and efficiency of cavalry forces were the medieval Mongols . Important for their horse archery was the use of stirrups for the archer to stand while shooting . This new position enabled to use bigger and stronger cavalry bows than the enemy . 
 [ Tactics of light cavalry with bows ] 
 Armies of horse archers could cover enemy troops with arrows from a distance and never had to engage in close combat . Slower enemys without effective long range weapons often had no chance against them . Like this the cavalry of the Parthian Empire destroyed the troops of Crassus ( 53 BC ) in the battle of Carrhae . During their raids in Central and Western Europe during the 9 th and 10 th century the Hungarian mounted archers spread fear and terror in the West Francia and East Francia . The people in these times added to every Lord ' s Prayer the sentence " and Lord save us from the arrows of the Hungarians . " ( de sagittis Hungarorum libera nos , domine ) 
 The great weakness of mounted archers was their need of space and their light equipment . If they were forced to fight in close combat against better armored enemies , they usually lost . Furthermore they were not suited for participating in sieges . Good cavalry troops needed lots of training and very good horses . People with this classical cavalry like Hungarians and Mongolians lived practically on horseback . 
 The battle of Dorylaeum ( 1097 ) during the first crusade shows advantages and disadvanteges of mounted archers : the ridergroups of the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan I were able to surround an army of crusaders and shoot them from a distance . Suddenly reinforcements under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon arrived and the Seljuks themselves were encircled . They could escape no longer and were annihilated in close combat . The defeat of the Seljuks at Dorylaeum was so complete , that the could practically cross Anatolia unchallenged . 
 [ Tactics of heavy cavalry with lances ] 
 Kircholm , a 1925 painting by Wojciech Kossak . 
 The battle of Mobei , from Wang Xuyang ( 1932 -) Knights had several different ways to attack , but always in formations of several knights , not individual . For defense and melée a formation of horsemen was as tight as possible next to each other in a line . This way it was not possible to charge , but enemy could not surround them individualy . With their heavy and armoured chargers they rode down the enemy infantry . The most devestating way was riding in a looser formation fast into attack and often coming in several waves . With the lance as primary weapon they pierced the enemy . If an enemy soldier was hit in full gallop by a knights lance embedded under the armpit , he was thrown backwards with such a momentum , that he knocked over several of his backers . The heavy lances were dropped after the attack and the battle was continued with secundary weapons ( sword , axe , mace or likewise ) . Then troops regrouped into the tighter formation mentioned above . Mongolian heavy cavalry even improved it by attaching hooks to their lances to take enemies down , when bypassing . Chinese cavalry used polearms with better slicing ability . Both handled their primary weapons in the two handed Asian style that was supreme to the single handled European style in the ability to parry such an attack . This method of a charging attack was very effective , but it depended upon several factors . The following tactics were often effective against heavy cavalry : 
 Good long range weapons : The longbow and the crossbow were able to threaten knights . Although the heavy noble cavalry of Middle Ages often fought on foot or at least avoided futile frontal attacks , it happened several times that knightly armies led charges according to their warrior ideal . The results were often devastating : at Crécy ( 1346 ) an Poitiers ( 1356 ) the French knights had heavy casualties against the English longbowarchers . At Agincourt ( 1415 ) 5000 knights were killed by arrowfire . 
 Polearms : the long spears of Scots and Swiss ( pikemen ) were an excellent choice . The warriors stood in thight formations like an antique phalanx . In battle against the Scots , the English knights proofed to be as narrow - minded as their French counterpart . In the battles of Stirling Bridge ( 1297 ) and Bannockburn ( 1314 ) they were defeated by the Scots . The inferior English were the first to imitate this tactic successfully against the French , the Swiss made it perfect . Despite longer lances for the knights , this formation was now almost inpenetrable . The pikemen with polearms were till to the end of the 30 Years War an important part of the troops . As countertactic against pikemen the heavy cavalry developed in the early modern times maneuvers like the caracole . 
 Using advantages of the terrain : lancers needed hard , plain ground and enough space for attack . a clever enemy avoided battle on open ground and preferred marshy , mountainous or arboreous grounds for battle . The Scots did this at Bannockburn and Stirling . The Swiss defeated the Austrian knights at the battle of Morgarten ( 1315 ) by attacking the knightly army in a narrow place bettween an acclivity and a swamp . The peasants of Dithmarschen faced in 1500 at Hemmingstedt the army of the Danish king . The opened the dykes and flooded the country . If the terrain was not well suited for a cavalry attack , English knights often fought on foot and used their lances as pikes . Knights fighting on foot were called men - at - arms in England . 
 Guerilla warfare : an enemy who could suddenly strike and retreat was a serious problem for the heavy cavalry . Therefore it was important to have also always enough light cavalry . 
 Modern historians agree , that the major part of knights during many Medieval battles fought on foot . Only with ideal conditions of terrain and support via long range combatants , attacks were carried out on horseback . If the enemy infantry was equipped with polearms and fought in tight formations , the knights bluffed to attack , but soon turned around . Many infantrymen thought this to be a flight and went on chase , leaving their formation . The knights turned around again in this new situation and rode down the infantry . Such a tactic was deployed in the battle of Hastings ( 1066 ) . Another method was the use of well armed infantry reserves during knightly battles on horseback . After some time the battle split in several small groups with space in between and both sides became exhausted . Then an infantry rush could concentrate on selected targets and route the enemy . Infantry also helped knights to remount in battle and saved the wounded . 
 [ Tactics of heavy cavalry with range weapons ] 
 An Ottoman Mamluk , from 1810 Attempts of integrating range weapons and heavy cavalry were made by the Greeks and Persians , equipping their cataphracts with javelin . In contrast to arrows , these missiles could break armor , but range and ammunition were limited . 
 One of the tactics employed , was the caracole . It developed in the mid - 16 th century in an attempt to integrate gunpowder weapons into cavalry tactics . Equipped with one or two wheellock pistols , cavalrymen would advance on their target at less than a gallop . As each rank came into range , the soldiers would turn away , discharge their pistols at the target , retire to reload , and then repeat the manoeuvre . The tactic was accompanied by the increasing popularity of the German Reiter in Western armies from about 1540 . 
 Some historians associate the demise of the caracole with the name of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden ( 1594 - 1632 ) . Certainly he regarded the technique as fairly useless , and ordered cavalry under Swedish command not to use the caracole . Instead the fast and lightly - armored Hakkapeliitta cavalry charged . They would attack at galloping speed , discharge the first pistol at 20 paces , the second at five paces , and then draw the sword . The horse itself was used like another weapon , as it was used to trample enemy infantry . . However , there is evidence that caracole was already falling out of use by 1620 , before Gustavus Adolphus reached Poland and Germany . 
 Modern historians regard the caracole as a military tactic ultimately proving ineffective . It sacrificed the cavalry advantages of speed and mobility , while also leaving mounted soldiers at a disadvantage to massed infantry equipped with heavier and longer - ranged weapons . The caracole gave way to close artillery support for cavalry ( see Horse artillery ) - breaking up the infantry formations , forcing the soldiers to scatter and allowing cavalry the advantage in close quarters , melee combat . The last recorded use of the caracole was by the French at the Battle of Minden in 1759 . 
 [ New tactics of light cavalry and mounted infantry ] 
 With increasing firepower and no sufficient protection , the role of cavalry on the battlefield was slowly reduced . Light cavalry with fireams could respond the fire , but the aim was not as good as for infantry . So most important for cavalry was the ability to quickly attack enemy cavalry or scattered infantry with lances and sabres . Speed reduced the time vulnerable to gunfire , but still closed formations became impossible to take . This tactic was a striking surprise of Mongolian light cavalry in the battle of the Kalka River . The alternative was to use them as dragoons , reaching their positions quickly , dismounting and firefighting like infantry . Such a way of fighting had started in Europe at least in the 13 th century with mounted longbow and crossbow archers 
 How it Fights . 
 7 . If we can maneuver so as to attack the enemy ' s cavalry in flank , our success will be certain . Military history affords hundreds of instances in proof of this proposition . At one of the battles in Spain , for example , in 1809 , fifteen hundred French horse , by charging four thousand Spanish cavalry in flank , completely cut it in pieces . 
 10 . Where a cavalry attack can be masked , so as to operate as a surprise , a battery may be taken by charging - it in front . The formidable Spanish battery in the Pass of Somosierra , was finally carried by a dash of Napoleon ' s Polish Lancers upon it , suddenly profiting of a temporary fog or mist . But , in ordinary cases , when cavalry has to charge a battery in front , its fire should be drawn by our own guns or infantry , immediately before the charge begins . 
 11 . In an attack on an intrenchment , the office of cavalry can rarely be any thing else than to repulse sorties from the work , and to cut off the enemy ' s retreat from it .