How to Tame a Horse in Minecraft: Everything You Need to Know

As you play Minecraft, exploration is a major aspect of the game that you’ll be doing. From exploring locations with needed resources to finding breathtaking scenery, efficiently exploring Minecraft’s world takes a lot of effort. This often requires you to travel for several in-game days on foot, bringing your basic needs such as Food, Beds, Weapons, and similar Tools. However, if you have a fast mode of transportation like a horse, the travel time can be reduced.

Having a horse in Minecraft isn’t just about riding horses to pretty much anywhere. It can help you get past troubling obstacles you may encounter in-game and even make your gameplay more immersive. Horses, however, aren’t always easy to come by, and you need to know how to care for them once you’ve got one.

With that in mind, we’ll walk you through the important things you need to know about Minecraft horses, how to tame horses, and other tips and tricks for caring for them. This will make it easier for you to better understand horse mechanics in Minecraft.

What is a Minecraft Horse?

So first off, what is a Minecraft horse? Well, Minecraft horse mobs are just like horses in real life, but function a bit differently in-game. Horses also spawn in herds of two to six horses and can have various appearances. Some horse coat combinations may include different base colors and marking patterns.

There’s also the undead horse, which is a Skeleton Horse that usually spawns during lightning strikes. They’re significantly faster in terms of movement speed.

Regardless, you can place saddles and/or horse armor on both alive and undead horses.

Horses remain passive even if you hit them, and you can approach them easily. When horses are attacked, their health is decreased. But horses slowly regenerate health after a while. If you kill a horse, though, they can drop some Leather and Experience Orbs. You can also ride them and use them to travel across different places in Minecraft.

In terms of horse behavior, horses wander aimlessly around an area. They’ll occasionally shake their tails, lower their heads, or even rear around. Aside from that, horses can also neigh and make whinnying sounds.

Similarly, if players have ridden saddled horses, they get to move faster and have increased jumping height while on them. You’ll be able to jump over fences and climb some steep hills or terrain more easily.

When it comes to water, however, horses won’t be able to float on it, and you’ll automatically get off your horse once you find yourself and your horse sinking deep into the water while riding it. Although you’ll be able to pull your horse to you with a Lead just like any other Minecraft mob.

Uses of taming a Minecraft Horse

Taming a horse in Minecraft has a lot of practical and fun benefits for you and your friends. Besides simply travelling, there are advantages to finding and taming them.

Faster travel

Mainly, horses are great for covering large distances. This is especially evident if you’ve found a horse with high movement speed. You should know that an average horse’s speed is around 8 – 9 blocks per second, with the best horse’s maximum speed at 14.23 blocks/second.

This is significantly faster than a regular player’s normal walking speed, so having a horse that covers distances like this can be a game-changer in adventuring, especially if you need to escape tight situations.

Jumping over high obstacles

Next is jumping over high obstacles. Adult horses in Minecraft can jump up to five blocks high, depending on their stats. This becomes very useful when navigating uneven terrain, such as jumping over ravines and blocked areas.

Roleplay

Finally, riding horses in Minecraft can add more immersion to your gameplay. It even adds purpose to your structures, such as stables, castles, ranches, and farm-like builds.

You and your friends can roleplay as knights heading off to slay the Ender Dragon, as wild west cowboys, or even as simple farmers, managing a farm of horses for horse breeding and exhibition. The possibilities are endless with horses, as your imagination is your only limit.

Where do I find a horse in Minecraft?

In terms of finding horses in Minecraft, a naturally spawned horse herd can usually be found in the Plains and Savannas. You’ll usually find the horses eating grass and grazing around the area. These biomes are usually easy to travel to, so spotting a horse is relatively easy.

Besides that, horses can also appear in Villages and can naturally generate within animal pens or stables. Horses can spawn as part of the Village structure generation. Though keep in mind that horses won’t always spawn with villages.

How do I tame horses in Minecraft?

Now that you know a bit about horses, their benefits, and how to find them, you can learn how to tame a horse in Minecraft. Follow these simple steps below to successfully tame your horse.

Step #1: Gather the materials needed

First, it’s important to gather the materials needed for horse taming. Usually, you won’t exactly need anything to tame a horse since you can ride it without giving it anything. But the process is faster if you have any of these items:

Food Items

Some food items can be given to horses. This includes Sugar, Wheat, Apples, Golden Carrots, Golden Apples, and feed the horse Wheat to increase its temper. Giving your horse any of this food can cause it to grow, restore its health, to become tamed. Golden Apples or Carrots are your best bet to easily tame your horse.

Lead

Having a Lead is also useful since you can use it to tie your horse to a fence post or bring it with you if you’re going back to your base, if you haven’t tamed it yet. You can find Lead from Wandering Traders after killing their Trader Llamas.

Name Tag

Last but another optional item is a name tag. This gives your horse a name and prevents it from despawning.

Saddle

If you have a saddle, you can put this on your horse and be able to ride and steer it. You can find Saddles within naturally-spawning Chests within Mineshafts, Fortresses, or by Fishing. You can’t craft a saddle, so you’ll have to rely on your exploration skills and a little bit of luck.

Step #2: Find a horse

Next, you’ll have to find a horse. As we mentioned earlier, horses are found within the Plains and Savanna biomes in Minecraft. They usually spawn in small herds, so you have some options for choosing a horse to tame.

Ensure that one of your hotbar slots is empty prior to interacting with your horse so you can mount it.

Step #3: Interact and ride a horse

To tame a horse, approach your chosen horse and right-click with your empty hotbar slot. This will allow you to climb on it and ride a horse.

You’ll notice that the horse will react to you, and it will buck you off after a couple of seconds. This is part of the process.

You’ll have to keep trying to mount your horse until you see heart particles appear. This is a sign that you’ve tamed your horse.

Once you’ve tamed your horse, you can then access the horse’s inventory and see the horse armor slot and horse saddle slot. This will allow you to equip your horse and be able to ride it as you please.

How do I equip my Minecraft horse?

Upon learning how to tame horses in Minecraft, you can now equip your horse with a saddle to ride it and some armor to protect it.

Putting on a horse saddle

To have yourself a saddled horse, get a saddle.

You can only get this from naturally appearing treasure Chests within Mineshafts, Fortresses, or by luck through fishing.

Once you have your horse saddle, you can either directly right-click on your horse with the saddle in your hotbar inventory to automatically place the saddle.

But you also have the option to open the horse’s inventory by riding the horse and right-clicking on it. Simply drag your Saddle to the horse’s empty saddle slot icon to place it.

Once you’ve done that, you’ve placed your horse’s saddle.

Putting on horse armor

For putting on horse armor, the process is also similar. You can simply hold the horse armor in your hotbar slot, then right-click to place it on your horse.

But you also have the option of mounting your horse and accessing its inventory, then dragging the horse armor to the empty horse armor slot.

How do I care for my horses in Minecraft?

Putting armor and a saddle isn’t the end of caring for your horse. You should learn how to care for it beyond these things. This includes giving them good living quarters, feeding them regularly, and breeding horses for better stats for their offspring.

Build stables for them

You can’t just put a Lead on your horse and call it a day. Your horse could become at risk of encountering mobs and wandering off.

Take the time and a few resources to build a secure enclosure with at least ample space for your horse to roam around. This is especially crucial if you have two tamed horses or more. You can also add a roof to protect your horse from lightning strikes.

Consider also adding Hay Bales, water troughs, and other elements to make their enclosure feel more realistic, especially if you want their enclosure to become more immersive and decorative within your space.

Feed them regularly

A basic way to care for your horses is to also feed them regularly. Feeding your horse helps with their healing, speeds up their growth for foals, and makes it easier to tame future horses. You don’t want to suddenly have a dying horse while you’re on an adventure, just because it’s low on health and you forgot to feed it.

Horses can eat Wheat, Apples, Sugar, Hay Bales, and Golden Apples and Golden Carrots. So, you have a lot of options for horse food. To feed your horse, simply hold the food item in your hand and right-click on the horse to feed it.

Breed your horses

Lastly, breeding horses allows you to produce offspring with possibly better horse stats, such as increased speed and jump height. If you want to regularly breed your horses, especially if you and a couple of friends aim to all have horses on your Minecraft world, it’s important to stock up on Golden Carrots or Golden Apples.

To breed your horses, find and feed two nearby horses Golden Apples or Golden Carrots.

Heart particles will appear, and a foal will spawn afterwards. This is a sign that you’ve successfully bred your horses.

You can increase your baby horse’s growth by feeding it regularly. The foal will inherit the traits from its parents, so breeding two fast horses will give you higher chances of having an even faster offspring.

On the other hand, if you crossbreed your horses with donkeys, you can create mules.

They can carry chests and can help you transport items if you plan to have long journeys in-game.

Tips and tricks for taming horses in Minecraft

Taming horses in Minecraft can become easy if you remember these few things. One of those is having multiple horses on hand and comparing their speed and jump height. This can allow you to decide which horse or horses you should tame and keep.

Another tip is to always carry a saddle with you. If you don’t have a horse yet and are still exploring Minecraft’s vast world, there may be a chance you’ll come across a horse. Having a saddle ready will make it easier for you to tame a horse and bring it back to your base.

Finally, consider installing quality of life mods that allow you to see horse stats in Minecraft. This Horse Statistics Mod by nero_surfing on CurseForge can allow you to easily see the stats of horses in-game.

Overall, taming horses is both fun and rewarding in the game. From finding your first wild horse to learning how to breed them, the process of caring for horses can add both practical benefits and immersion in your Minecraft adventure.