An interesting note
David Nicolle states in his books on Saracenes (Osprey) that vaunted nomadic shoot-on the-run combat manner required up to 5 horses per each combatant. This was possible for truly nomadic tribes such as Turcomans or Mongols, but armies of Middle East Muslim states, while able to field more troopers, were not able to provide them with so much horses. On the other hand, they had horses of better lines. So: their ghulams shoot while standing drawn in disciplined ranks. This tires horses less, so they were able to protect their valuable horses with barding.
By the way, this may also explain why Crusaders didn't use barding initially: their way of combat involved more riding (ghulams charged only after opponent was into disarray from shooting), as well as why they often won straight-on confrontations: horsemen who stand and shoot almost always lost against a determined charge.
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