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You guys are forgetting that Rome did fight a cavalry based empire, Parthia.
Look at the battle of Carrhae 55BC. 40,000 Roman Legions vs 9,000 horse archers + 1,000 cataphracts (heavy cavalry). The Romans got butchered 1/3 died, 1/3 prisoners, 1/3 survived.
Roman accounts states that:
"When Publius urged them to charge the enemy's mail-clad horsemen, they showed him that their hands were riveted to their shields and their feet nailed through and through to the ground, so that they were helpless either for flight or for self-defence." (Plutarch, Life of Crassus, XXV)
The Parthians were using a recurved bow, an earlier version of the Composite Recurved bow that the Mongols would use in their conquest. The Parthian bow, according to Plutarch, pierce through their tower sheild and nailed it to their hands. The Roman world, western world, never had anything as powerful as a recurved bow for their archers. Mongol bows were more powerful and they have the superior technology of stirrups (a more stable firing platform).
Secondly, a cavalry army is always faster than an infantry based one. The mongols can always dictate when and where the battle will be. The slower Romans will always be reacting.
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