We started in 1996 as an all-volunteer public service to hunting. No one has ever taken a penny in salary. All our information and pictures are free. Please scroll down to learn more.
Asia's nomads, starting with the Scythians around the 8th century BC, followed by the Huns, the Avars, the Magyars and later the Mongols, all shared the same lifestyle. They owned only what they could carry and were always moving from pasturage to pasturage over vast steppes, traveled and fought on horseback during their long migrations.
The Scythians used short bows with arrows that had very small cast bronze heads with three edges. These bows were developed further by the Huns, who attached rigid ears to the ends and replaced the tiny bronze arrowheads with huge, triple-edged steel heads. The legendary weapon was further perfected by the Magyars and especially by the Mongols who added the strig-stool to the bow, which enabled a faster cast of the arrows while firing.
Using the nomad bow from horseback, their tactics were characterized by swift attacks and rapid withdrawals. Without slowing the horse they fired their bow on the advance and in retreat. The left flank kept exchanging places with the right, performing a continuous rotating motion. Trying to keep out of the range of the enemy's arrows the heavily armored troops were disadvantaged confronting with mobile forces of the mounted archers.
This military tactic also required a different method of riding the horse - with both hands occupied with bow and arrow, horses were trained to respond to commands from the legs of the rider as well as the reins.
These tactics placed the heavily armored Knights mounted on Percherons or other large horses at a deadly disadvantage. They could not keep up with the fast moving, unarmored horsemen of the steppes who would advance from different directions, loose their arrow and then retreat. If the arrows could not penetrate the armor of the Knights, the bowmen would kill the horses and a Knight on foot, retreating for his life and encumbered by heavy armor was easily killed.