Lamellar armour in the context of "Eastern Asia"

A cataphract was a form of armoured heavy cavalry that originated in Persia and was fielded in ancient warfare throughout Eurasia and Northern Africa.

Historically, the cataphract was a very heavily armoured horseman, with both the rider and mount almost completely covered in scale or lamellar armour over chain mail, and typically wielding a kontos (lance) as his primary weapon.

Barding (also spelled bard or barb) is body armour for war-horses. The practice of armoring horses first developed extensively in antiquity in the Asian kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE it likely made its way - along with cataphract technology - into European military practices via the Seleucid Empire and later the Byzantine Empire. Though its historical roots lie in antiquity in the regions of what was once the Persian Empire, barded horses have become a symbol of the late European Middle Ages chivalry and the era of knights.

Examples of armour for horses could be found as far back as classical antiquity. Many historians believe that cataphracts, with scale armour for both rider and horse, influenced the later European knights, via contact with the Byzantine Empire.