Mongol heavy cavalry?

1. A minor battle in war, as one between small forces or between large forces avoiding direct conflict.
2. A minor or preliminary conflict or dispute: a skirmish over the rules before the debate began.

To engage in a minor battle or dispute.

The mongol battle order

1/4-1/3 heacvy cav 2/3 3/4 light cav

Heavy cav makes a 2 line deep formation ,light cav form 3 lines behind the heavy cav+ seperate units of light cavalry to protect flanks and scout.

When battle start the light cavalry moves through the gaps in the heavy cavalry and Dances and wheels using superior mobility to outshoot the enemy,heavy cavalry stands back shooting long range shower shooting.

units of light cavalry make consecutive charges and retreats shooting volleys of arrows,and then resting after.General skirmishing commences.If enemy heavy cavalry charges mongols the skirmishing units will retreat to the protection of heavy cavalry.

If enemy light cavalry is skirmishing mongols will wait till their horses tire and chargge often with light cavalry .Heavy cavalry supports charges and mongol charges often constist of flanking maneouveres by light cavalry combined with frontal heavy charge

just because there was no level of standardization in the Mongol army doesn't mean there were no heavy or light units. it clearly states that at the battle of Kalka River the Mongol heavy cavalry did engnage in a charge before the ligth cavalry starded the skirmish. maybe you misunderstood me but i wrote before: in order to support your theory you must come up with proove that Mongol heavy cavalry (fully armoured horsemen) changed horses during battle and how this would look like. second, skirmishers are shoot & scoot light troops, somethign that was excersiced EVERYwhere in the world at times, not just by greek psiloi. in cases were missile troops were not light but armoured, those were SUPPORT troops, not skirmishers, thats why i said some of you have no understanding of what skirmishing really is about. Heavy Mongol cavalry used their missiles in support of their charging comrades, not for skirmishing! (yes, Roman legionaries had detachement of skirmishing legionaries, those however discarded their armour and heavy javelin in favour of more and lighter javelins.) and just because there was no regulation of litgh or heavy cavalry in Napoleonic term doesn't mean there was no distinction being made. the whole point is, no, not every troop with missiles can skirmish...

Though not an ancient source, D. Nicolle writes, 'Kalka River 1223-Genghiz Khan's Mongols invade Russia' Osprey Publishing, the following:

   The normal battle array of the Mongol's included five rows of dzaguns (hundreds). The first two consisted of heavy cavalry, sword-armed men wearing armour. Light cavalry formed the rear three rows. Furthermore the army which Subodei and Jebei led into the western steppes was much better armed than most Mongol forces. This was a result of its previous successful operations...

   In battle the rows of Mongol cavalry were divided into a checkerboard pattern of distinct units. There were large gaps between the units of heavy cavalry in the front rows, allowing the horse-archers to advance from deep inside the Mongol battle array. If this initial assault failed and the enemy counter-attacked, the lightly armoured Mongol horse-archers could retreat while the Mongol heavy cavalry renewed the attack, protected by their armour. If this also failed, then the entire process could be repeated again and again until the enemy was worn down and defeated.

just because there is no primary source describing the exact composition and tactic of Mongol forces in the style of a 18th century military manual doesn't mean such distinction did not exist. common sense and militarical necessity dictates the existence of such an organization.

a napoleonic line infantry regiment in 1805 was composed liek that: 1 regiment = 3 battailons, 1 battailon = 1 company grenadiers (heavy inf) 4 companies fusiliers and 1 company Voltigeurs (light infantry). then, a light infantry battaillion looked like this: 1 company of carabiniers (heavy infantry in theory) 4 of chasseurs (the original light infantry) and 1 of voltigeurs (light infantry again). from this you can see that French napoleonic infantry distinctions completely blurred after the introduction of Voltigeur companies. the idea was to have 2 elite companies (heavy & light) and 4 regular companies in a battaillion. the line regiments would have their own light infantry but the light regiments were all light, depsite of classification. also, for battles like Austerlitz, provisional regiments were created, those were all-grenadier regiments as a reserve, those were created from assigning all grenadier companies from line regiments. they only existed for 1 battle and then were disbanded and the grenadiers returned to their original untis. this was not recorded in any primary sources other than the orders for the battle of austerlitz by napoleon. what i want to say with that is that roles on the battlefield were not always clear defined and that unit organization was in many cases upon the descision of the individual commander. Roman manipular army is also an example of this.

about Kalka river, it says that the cavalry did first charge, then start the skirmish. it doesn't make sense letting horse archers charge while cataphracts do the skirmish. this is what i mean with common sense. just because sources don't mention details like that doesn't mean that the Mongol army was a homogenous mass of horsemen with no understanding of utilizing its own forces. given the sucess of Mongol forces this is especially unlikely...

Mamluke horse archers did not skrimish, they were used tactically like their foot counterparts, they approached the front as a cohesive unit and shot in volleys from horseback. they did not "dance".