"Pathan Cavalry: fact or fiction?" Topic

Most manufacturers of figures for the NW Frontier seem to include mounted figures (cavalry might be stretching things).

While no doubt there were mounted warriors on the plains of Afghanistan itself, I wonder if there are any references to mounted "units" on the NW Frontier itslf or was it too mountainous?

Polo in the Hunsa Valley….???? The Pathans have a long tradition of horse coping, – and the Pathan companies in the Guides cavalry came from somewhere
Shabash

The Kizzalbash horse were mentioned frequently.

Afghan Cavalry is always mentioned with near reverence, like a thing of legend and lore.

Obviously, there had to be at least a large Pathan contingent in any massed body, but I have read very little about face to face meetings between any large groupings of British/HEIC cavalry and Pathan horse on the NWF.

The truth and reality seems to lie somewhere between the two.

Thanks for the replies.

My feeing was that, while of course there were horses on the Frontier, they may have been used more as transport rather than "cavalry" per se.

I have the impression that, immediately prior to the Pathan Revolt there was a polo game between some Brits and some Pathans.

Churchill's History of the Malakand Field Force is full of comments about how the Force's cavalry was carefully shot at, to avoid hurting the horses!

I certainly have a contingent of Pathans on horseback for my own forces.

During the 1st Anglo-Afghan war there was a cavalry action between a brigade of Company cavalry and a mass of tribal horse.
Bengal Horse artillery saved the day because the sowars of the lancer regiments weren't up to their later standards.

Like Lion in the Stars, I also have a mounted contingent in my Pathan force. When I painted them, I did not know if they were "real" cavalry, but they looked good.

At the Battle of Ahmed Khel during the 2nd Afghan War, the British march column was attacked by swarms of Afghan cavalry.

link

Ahmed Khel is generally recognized as the battle upon which Kipling based his short story, "The Drums of the FOre and Aft"

The term 'Pathan' is deliberately being loosely employed; they have to call them something, after all. Has anyone ever seen a range of Pashtun figures catalogued as 'Afghan Irregulars'?

Manufacturers know that their 'Pathan' figures can and will serve both as true NW Frontier Pathans and as Afghans, so cavalry is an essential inclusion to represent the mounted element of any Afghan tribal horde.

I hope it's fact. I sold 3 units of Pathan cavalry
a few months ago!! Sal Sr out!!