Here's an old thread that discusses llamas and other possible Western hemisphere stuff in some detail: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=34457
The earlier picture of a pack llama also had a woman next to it for reference, hence the woman here for consistency. Assuming she's of average height, the mule is four feet tall at the shoulder, some six inches taller than the llama and twelve inches shorter than the average horse. Big enough to ride, but not big enough for an effective cavalry mount.
Part of what makes cavalry effective in battle is the sheer mass of the horse and rider as opposed to the footsoldier opposing them. It's one thing to face a charging two hundred pound man; it's quite another to face him mounted on eight hundred pounds of horse. Animals like llamas and mules simply aren't massive enough to be effective, not in the shock role.
A Mongolian pony is larger (though by less), faster, and better able to carry riders.
So what if we go nuts and have Titanotylopus survive and spread forming the basis for a true heavy cavalry in the Americas!![]()
Well Camels, Dromedary and Llamas are domesticated so why not [domesticate Titanotylopus] (its an What if after all)?
One of the players in the NationStates game has created a nation whose history included Macrauchenia-pulled chariots... and "cavalry" riding giant ground sloths! I'll try to find links to his pictures of these when I've got more time available, probably next week.I have become a fan of domestic Macrauchenia, although I admit that it's largely because of the novelty of it. It's about the size of a horse or camel, but it has feet more like rhino feet, so it probably wasn't as fast as a horse. Its sturdier legs possibly means it could carry more weight, though. Its tiny head possibly means it had lower intelligence and lower tractability, though it would be impossible to know that for sure.
I think that's the key part of this whole debate... people in the old world were working with it's domesticated animals for way longer than the people in the new world. If you could ASB people into the Andes at the same time as humans entered the Middle East, you'd have a better shot at getting llamas big enough to ride. After all, the original horse wasn't all that big an animal either, but humans had a long long time to breed them up...Even if you could breed a Llama or Dog big enough to carry a adult human of decent size you will never get heavy cavalry. As you'd already have reached the upper end of the Llama or Dog it's size capabilities, achievable in the time that humans and these animals have lived together.
One of the players in the NationStates game has created a nation whose history included Macrauchenia-pulled chariots... and "cavalry" riding giant ground sloths! I'll try to find links to his pictures of these when I've got more time available, probably next week.
Well, that's saved me some work: Yes, those were the pictures that I was talking about.
They ARE 'bred up', as you put it; the modern llama is much larger than its ancestors. To make it larger you'd have to genetically modify it, which would be beyond any civilization which existed in the world before the present day.
But I see no reason why they couldn't be usefull for the temperate plains of the Pampas, or the Mexican highlands (if they can be taken there by sea).
I think I read somewhere that llamas' backs are too delicate to be used as mounts. I have no sources, though, so hey, I could be completely wrong.
Who says it has to be heavy charging cavalry? Why not mounted archers or javlineers? So how does the Mongolian pony stack up to the Llama?
Just because you can ride it doesn't make it a suitable cavalry mount. You'll note in those pictures just how small zebras are compared to horses; they simply wouldn't stand up to the strain of carrying an adult human for any length of time. You could use them as pack animals, ala donkeys, although I don't know if they're temperamentally suited to it.
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