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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. In large open areas, it was a highly successful technique for hunting, for protecting the herds, and for war. It was a defining characteristic of the Eurasian nomads during antiquity and the medieval period, including Iranian peoples (Scythians, Sarmatians, Sassanids) and Indians in antiquity, and by the Mongols and the Turkic peoples during the Middle Ages. By the expansion of these peoples, the practice also spread to Eastern Europe (via the Sarmatians and the Huns), to Mesopotamia, and to East Asia. In East Asia, horse archery came to be particularly honoured in the samurai tradition of Japan, where mounted archery is called Yabusame. Mounted archery developed separately among the peoples of the South American pampas and the North American prairies; the Comanches were especially skilled.〔T. R. Fehrenbach. Comanches, the history of a people. Vintage Books. London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-09-952055-9. First published in the USA 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. The natives of large grassland areas used mounted archery for hunting, for protecting their herds, and for war. Mounted archery was for many groups a basic survival skill, and additionally made each able-bodied man, at need, a highly-mobile warrior. The buffalo hunts of the North American prairies may be the best-recorded examples of bowhunting by mounted archers.〔Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo with Lances and Bows. George Catlin 1846-1848. Western Landscape ()〕 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. 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 ISBN 0-82631459-7 p. 221-222.〕 In the tactic of the Parthian shot the rider would retreat from the enemy while turning his upper body and shooting backwards. 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. Constant harassment would result in casualties, morale drop and disruption of the formation. Any attempts to charge the archers would also slow the entire army down. 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. Fifty Rangers armed with guns met about 20 Comanche hunters who were hunting buffalo, and attacked them. 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. 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. The Rangers found a ravine where they could shoot at the Comanche from cover. 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. ISBN 978-0-09-952055-9. First published in the USA by Alfred Knopf, 1974.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mounted archery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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