The best archers have trained north of thirty years. note You're not even allowed to participate in a Yabusame ceremony until you've trained at least five years. Mounted archery is Difficult, but Awesome, since it requires you to simultaneously control your horse without the reins, and take aim while compensating for the horse's movements. The MythBusters also proved that charging towards your target on a horse while firing can impart your arrows with ~70% more kinetic energy, and increase their penetration power a bit. An honorable mention goes to earlier civilizations (Persians, Egyptians, etc.) that used chariots as a shooting platform, but in those cases it was a team of both horses and men. Naturally, since it requires expert horsemanship, it is a specialty of any Born in the Saddle culture. The Parthians were often fought, but never conquered (at least not by the Romans themselves). note This tactic in particular is often called the "Parthian shot," named after one of Ancient Rome's rivals who specialized in exactly this. They often specialize in Hit-and-Run Tactics, especially with archers who can spur their horse, turn around and shoot backwards as their enemies pursue. The first category are the light horse archers, who act as skirmishers and rely on agility and speed. There are basically two categories of this trope.
The Huns and Mongols are the best-known of these, and have spawned any number of clones in fantasy literature, but almost every civilization that had horses has used these at some point, often to devastating effectiveness, and the Samurai used the dai-kyu (a type of recurved longbow) from horseback up until the Meiji Restoration. Prior to the invention of the stirrup, lance warfare demanded a great deal more skill as it required both hands holding the weapon. Truth in Television for numerous civilizations, of course, with many historical armies being made up partly or primarily of horse archers. Someone who shoots a bow while on horseback.
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