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.