not sure I EVER want to shoot a double york as mk suggests even with my
recurve let alone a horsebow but as I already shoot portsmouths ... an american may be next. think of it as lots of practice repetition at a specific range with scoring
Brian: Most of the scholars who do experimental archaeology (ie try it out and see what happens) think pull weights werent that great. much is made of the turkish bow which has fairly huge pull weights but why would you need a horse bow with more than 45-50lbs? the horse gets you close to the action and then out of there in a hurry if needed.
Sample horsebow attack
You ride up to 50yrds - ride along the front of the enemy formation shooting, if you run out of arrows - go get some more.
Possible results
Enemy stands: Keep shooting. poor quality/overly aggressive troops will do something stupid eventually
Enemy starts to wobble: charge home, they will break and run. slaughter and mayhem!
The enemy charges you: you ride away shooting behind you (parthian shot) enticing him further from his support till you can cut them off - surround them and slaughter them with shots from all angles.
Thats the tactics of every single light horse and bow attack from skythians (300bc) to mongols (1500ad). No need for 200lbs pull weight horsebows so a york is going to be a problem ... but then again, no one is going to let us ride a horse up to the 100yrd york target, shoot at 10 yrds then return to the shooting line now are they?