Some time ago we have had an interesting discussion here about shock cavalry without stirrups and couched saddles... some people seemed to find it completely arkward that there was actual shock cavalry, operating with shock cavalry tactics (charging en masse with full gallop head on into the enemy formation, for instance) before the invention of the stirrup and the couched saddle and lance.
Shows only that people tend to dismiss actual evidence to fit the facts to their own opinion (theory, whatever).
The Heteroi (Companion) cavalry of Philipos and Alexander is supposed to be the first true shock cavalry in history, and they definitely had no stirrups or couched saddles.
Likewise, the Thessalian cavalry (that was medium cavalry, but also used shock tactics) and it preceeded the Macedonian cavalry by several decades.
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