Regular Mounted Troops

Many nations & regions use mounted cavalry alongside standard troops. These offer fast attacks on the enemy, and swiftly encircle enemy units to attack the flanks. Most mounted troops are armed with spears, or lances. In this period it is rare to have the lances shaped like those of the later medieval era, though they fulfil the same purpose, as a hard hitting first blow. Many cavalry units are smaller than what they would eventually become, as the horses used are expensive, and bred to be larger & stronger than most others, as well as more aggressive. This is partly due to the fact that most riders are nobles & lords with their body guards, all dressed in the best (and heaviest) armour they can afford. The aggression, and weigh, is as much of a weapon than anything else, and it takes a highly motivated enemy unit of spearmen to remain coherent enough to prevent such mounted troops to get near.
There are other regularly used mounted troops, with the High Elves having a similar structure to human armies. Some other units of cavalry are mounted skirmishers who use lighter & faster horses to carry out lightning fast strike s in a loose formation, and with draw quickly. A few also use them for scouts, able to roam ahead of the main force, and if need be fil in the role off skirmishers, and harass the main enemy force. A lesser known use of camels is as mounted troops in hot desert environments, where the natural traits the camels allows them to survive on less vegetation & water than horses, as well as having the feet to withstand walking on sand. They can be very bad tempered creatures too, adding to them attacking any enemy that gets too close.
There are many rare cavalry as well, at least by human or Elvish standards. Bugbears l& Goblins prefer to use creatures like wolves, dire wolves & Worgs as mounts instead. These ill-tempered creatures make for shocking raids on enemy forces, and actively launch themselves, and their riders, right into the fight, terrifying their opponents, and carrying out bloody attacks that affect the morale of the enemy to even greater heights. Dwarves use their own cavalry too, though most find them strange or outwardly silly, until they face them in battle. The most common is smaller ponies & horse breeds, build more for strength, and toughness, than speed. This allows them to keep up with their main forces while still being faster than standard troops. They can take the weight of a fully armoured Dwarf, while not tiring as easily as many other equine units, and if need be can be turned into workhorses if the need arises. Also, they can be found in the Underdark too when necessary. A few cases of Dwarves riding large goats have been seen too. This may seem absurd, but it suits the Dwarves perfectly. With living in hills & mountains, the goats are more surefooted, so there is less chance of them falling, as well as attacking from unexpected angles. This is backed up with the goats ability to eat almost any type of vegetation, and the males have large enough horns to do serious damage on the charge.
Orcs use mounts too, regularly using aurochs as mounts, with both being bulky & belligerent they get on quite well. With the Orcs looking to get into melee as quick as possible the aurochs are perfect mounts, able to gore their way through many ranks.

Type

Cavalry