How Effective were Spears Against Cavalry?

[Domen]

Regarding the total number of horses in the Parthian Empire:

Anyway claiming that all horses won't charge or that all horses will charge is missing the point- in a world where horses are valuable commodities and especially trained war horses can fetch huge sums the outliers in both disposition and size would belong to the richest members of society- the very members who most often formed the cavalry ranks. In an Empire of millions (anywhere form 8-20 million estimates for Parthia at its height) the average field army of Parthia was certainly less than 50,000 and probably about half of which the best horses were selected. There were certainly less horses than people in Parthia and any estimates would be hugely guesswork but for comparison around 1900 in England the War Department estimated about 1.2 million horses but only 150,000 of those were considered cavalry capable with the rest being working horses, pack horses, pleasure horses, etc. The War Department also noted that the horse population in England had been decreasing by about 3% per year for over a decade (as industrial revolution lessened the need for workhorses) and that any sustain overseas campaign would likely require over 300,000 horses (only about 15% for cavalry- the rest for logistics) so it became a priority to ensure supplies of horses from sources outside England.

So of 25,000 cavalry in a Parthian field army the cataphracts on the best horses usually numbered less than 5,000. If the standard for cavalry was higher for cataphracts than 20th century British cavalry and we eliminated by half the proportion of suitable cavalry it would only require a total horse population of a bit less than 100,000 which at least to me does not seem unreasonable but is really difficult to prove or disprove.

In Poland before WW2, in 1937 (Poland at that time had 34 million inhabitants) there were 4 million horses. So on average there was 1 horse for each 8,5 human beings. Even if Ancient Parthia had only 8 million inhabitants, 1 horse for each 8,5 people is still 941,200 horses, rather than 100,000.

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These were just to show the power of horses and that they can act aggressively for some people who were arguing horses would flee away from battle. 3 and sometimes 4 men are unable to hold back a horse controlling the head which is much easier to exert weight against than the whole form of the horse. The harshest lesson for me on strength of horses was a 1 year old horse (not full grown) which I was leading with the rope wrapped around my hand- the horse reared ****ing me into the air above its head and then took off running with me dragged until the rope I had wrapped around my army unraveled. I dislocated my shoulder and some bruises while the horse barely noticed I was there. It seems alot of people arguing that formed group of men could ward off horses don't have any feel for how strong horses are and only good behavior bred into horse and training allow humans to use horses so easily. If horses are bred for aggressive traits it would be quite difficult to stop a charge if you are in the first few ranks and don't have a long spear to impale the horse. Of course most infantry formations were 6-12 ranks deep and in that case frontal charge might well not be effective if the infantry kept their cool and fought back hard as well even small changes in terrain can cause a charge to slow or break apart which battles like Hastings represent where a shield wall on top of a low ridge withstood numerous charges and was only defeated when the cavalry did feint retreat.

"My little ponies": :whistle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w0Q-JS9RME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcqKzRzySf4