Quote Originally Posted by The Persian Cataphract
I have seen this one before, a very interesting piece indeed.

This Sakâë, or probably a Dahâë enemy is riding on a horned saddle, on boot wears a very Parthian kaftan/shirt held tight by a cummerbund/felt belt, and on the general scale bears clothing that is very similar to the bronze statue believed to be Rustam of the Sûrên-Pahlav (Surena):
It doesn't seem to be horned, but it definitely is a "Scythian" saddle.

Loose pants/leggings, and his hair is long, though untied unlike Surena, probably lost his bandana during combat (The loss may be represented symbolically as the losing part being in chaos and so forth...).
It's thought that the fillet was only worn amongst the Parthians by nobles and royalty. Besides, I don't even think we know if the Saka did wear the fillet.

One may speculate that this rider wore boots or gaiters. The shield is indeed an interesting observation, but here one must be very pragmatic and ask these questions:
There's another fragment which shows that the rider actually seems to be wearing a droopy sort of leggings. There's no clear "edge" painted on for a boot. I'll post it later.

How practical would it have been for a completely unarmoured man to bear a shield of such a size as to extending to the hands?
Very practical? As far as defending against archery goes, this fellow seems to have done OK - two or maybe three arrows in the shield and one in the neck (notice the blood running down onto his caftan, btw).

For this man could certainly not have been equipped for melee, and prior to this era Scythians made use of a crescent-shaped shield, also known as the takâ, because of the practicality of the shape, allowing for some mobility and protection. We do not know that much more about the shield other than the size, or the possible shape. A hoplon? Hardly. It is probably made of wicker and thus primarily meant to stop arrows, and this is emphasized by the cavalryman's posture.
Seems to me by the way it curves that it is some sort of oxhide/hardened leather shield which is circular or slightly oval in shape with a half-cylindrical cross section. I doubt that a shield of this shape without a rim of some kind would be made of wicker. You can see the other edge of the shield painted in black/dark grey underneath.

And is it just me, or is he black?
It was quite common for many ancient peoples to represent men as being very dark-skinned in art. Tons of funerary stelai showing soldiers show Macedonian men with very dark brown or red-brown skin.