War horse - Louis A. DiMarco

For
more than four thousand years, the horse and rider have been an integral
part of warfare. Armed with weapons and accessories ranging from a
simple javelin to the hand-held laser designator, the horse and rider
have fought from the steppes of central Asia to the plains of North
America. Understanding the employment of the military horse is key to
understanding the successes and the limitations of military operations
and campaigns throughout history. Over the centuries, horses have been
used to pull chariots, support armor-laden knights, move scouts rapidly
over harsh terrain, and carry waves of tightly formed cavalry. In War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider,
Louis A. DiMarco discusses all of the uses of horses in battle,
including the Greek, Persian, and Roman cavalry, the medieval knight and
his mount, the horse warriors-Huns, Mongols, Arabs, and Cossacks-the
mounted formations of Frederick the Great and Napoleon, and mounted
unconventional fighters, such as American Indians, the Boers, and
partisans during World War II. The book also covers the weapons and
forces which were developed to oppose horsemen, including longbowmen,
pike armies, cannon, muskets, and machine guns. The development of
organizations and tactics are addressed beginning with those of the
chariot armies and traced through the evolution of cavalry formations
from Alexander the Great to the Red Army of World War II.

In
addition, the author examines the training and equipping of the rider
and details the types of horses used as military mounts at different
points in history, the breeding systems that produced those horses, and
the techniques used to train and control them. Finally, the book reviews
the importance of the horse and rider to battle and military operations
throughout history, and concludes with a survey of the current military
use of horses. War Horse is a comprehensive look at this oldest
and most important aspect of military history, the relationship between
human and animal, a weapons system that has been central to warfare
longer than any other.