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Horses offered mobility to the Mongols, permitting them to
roam the steppes in search of pasture for their flocks, as
well as to round up other horses that have been allowed to
graze freely faraway from an encampment.
Riders gathering the horses together were equipped with a
pole at the end of which was a special lasso. Children, who
became skilled riders at an early age, assumed this responsibility
on occasion.
In traditional times horses gave the Mongols the decided
tactical
advantage of mobility in conflicts against sedentary civilizations.
They could, for example, initiate a hit-and-run raid on a
Chinese village, fleeing to the steppelands and thus evading
the less mobile Chinese forces.
"All
the Khan's Horses," by Morris Rossabi [pdf], in Natural History (October
1994). Reprinted with permission from the author.
"Chagi's Charge," by Robert McCraken Peck,
in Natural History (June 1999).
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