A horse archer, horsed archer, or mounted archer is a cavalryman armed with a bow, able to shoot while riding from horseback. Archery has occasionally been used from the backs of other riding animals. Mounted archery was a defining characteristic of Steppe warfare throughout Central Asia, and throughout the prairies of America after the adoption of the horse, used by peoples including the Scythians, Sarmatians, Parthians, Sassanids, Huns, Byzantines, Bulgars, Cumans, Kipchaks, Magyars, Japanese, Mongols, Turks, Rajputs, Comanches, and others. It was also adopted by other peoples and armies, notably Chinese and Romans who both suffered serious conflict with peoples practising horse archery. It developed separately among the peoples of the South American pampas and the North American prairies; the Comanches were especially skilled.[1] Horse archery was also particularly honoured in the samurai tradition of Japan, where mounted archery is called Yabusame. In some places, such as in Germany, Scandinavia and Portugal, the crossbow was favoured over composite bow. Horse archery was never widely used south of the Sahara in Africa, where the ecosystem was less suitable for domestic horses. This was presumably due to factors such as the tsetse fly and lack of suitable fodder. Though some African kingdoms south of the Sahara used horses, they were less useful and had a high mortality rate in these regions.
