Knights in the Scandinavian Countries

[Kraxis]

Yes, the Danish regions (I think that is a fair term for Denmark, Skåne, Halland and Blekinge) were very much the gateway to Europe, and also different from both.

The Danish nobility became possibly the strongest in all of Europe, amounting to no more than 5000 in all (thus each was quite rich). There used to be a lot more, but a good deal were bought out to become free farmers instead (thus they were freed from supplying the king, supplying troops in war ect ect). Everyone gained from that. A lot of free farmers became serfs out of their own will, it was quite simply cheaper to be a serf, and you were not required to serve in war (a good thing for the peasant, there weren't all those plunderraids anymore), in fact you were entitled to protection from the lord. Quite surprisingly there wasn't a revolution or similar, instead the people of all classes willingly (over time of course) created a Danish version of feudalism. Nobody forced it on them.
But surprisingly the leding (ledung if you want) was kept up until the early 1200s, and even later for naval service. So for a while you would find both knights and freeman levies fighting side by side in an equal manner, in a similar fashion to what the viking era had seen.

But horses in Scandinavia weren't of poor quality. Do you consider Icelandic horses of poor quality? They are the same. They are rugged, strong horses, able to withstand horrible conditions... In fact they have a lot in common with the Mongol steppe ponies. But they were more than just a little unsuited for heavy cavalry, thus to the fashion of the day they were a lesser choice. A knight would not get much from such a horse, an honestly they aren't as majestic as spanish or arabic horses. So as soon as one noble had such horses the others would soon follow.
This was very quickly learned in Denmark and it eventually (quite soon actually) ended up exporting warhorses for knights in the rest of Europe. The king had a large horse-estate near Esrum in northern Sjælland (Sealand), and horses from that estate were priced, and often used as gifts to foreign kings and so on. This was kept up for centuries, and the estate was functional even a century ago.

The longbow was common enough, even way back before the Vikings made their entrance on the worldscene. But it was not used to its full potential, just as a superior selfbow compared to the shortbows.
It has in fact been theorized that the vikings introduced the longbow to the Welsh when they raided their coasts. Battles at sea would not have been entirely implausible since the Welsh had roots among people similar to the Picts (know for their searaiding). And at battles at sea the longbow was very prominent.

Btw, the eastern influence in terms of weapons, armour and culture was more Viking-era, or at least that is what I have gathered. Gotland died out for a good while as a trading-/stangingarea, before it rose again with the Hansa. Indicating that the contact eastwards lessened a good deal. But this is more an area for Swedes.