Horse

**Horses** are mobs that were added to *Minecraft* in the 13w16a snapshot. They spawn, usually in groups, within Plains and Savanna biomes.

Zombie and skeleton horses exist, serving as variants of zombies, and skeletons. Despite being zombies, and skeletons, they are passive unlike the other zombies and skeletons.

## Background

In a twitter posting, Jeb stated there was a potential need for adding a manually-controlled mount.[1] Notch later posted that horses may be implemented within 1.6 to 1.7. This can be confirmed by an Instagram post made by Jeb.[2]

## Taming

A horse can be ridden but must be tamed by right-clicking on it with nothing in a player's hand. The horse will buck, causing a player to fall off. This must be done a few times until hearts appear around the horse. Using specific items will decrease the required tries. These items are as follows:

* Golden Apple
* Hay Bales
* Golden Carrot
* Apple
* Wheat
* Sugar
* Bread

Afterwards, the horse can be mounted but the player will not have control of it (similar to having a saddled pig without a carrot on a stick). In order to gain control of a horse's movement, the player must find a saddle and place it on the horse.

## Uses

When a horse is mounted, 2 new status bars will appear: one representing the mount's health, and the other representing how charged the horse's jump is. Horses can jump up to 5.5 blocks, depending on what kind of horse a player may have. This jump is higher than any other mob in the game. Holding the jump button will charge the horse's jump. In order to get the maximum height of the jump, a player must time it correctly. The bar's maximum will turn an orange color upon reaching the far right, and quickly degrades to a certain point about 4–5 check marks from the right where it will remain. Timing is quite difficult until the user has had enough practice. When shift-clicking against any kind of horse, it'll have an inventory and an armor slot with its saddle slot.

Armor may also be placed on horses to protect them. Armor may only be made of leather (PE only), iron, gold, or diamond, and cannot be crafted, as it is only found in dungeons, temples, and nether fortress chests. Horses may be lead by a player by the use of a lead, which may be placed on any fence post to restrain the horse. If a player opens their inventory (default E) while riding a horse, a GUI for adding armor and saddles is opened.

## Breeding

Two horses can be bred by first taming each, and then moving them within close proximity of each other. While they are standing next to one another, feed each horse a golden carrot or golden apple. This will produce one baby horse. A horse may also be bred with a donkey to produce a mule. Donkeys are breed-able by the same process, while mules are not. Bred horses tend to be the average of the adults. For this reason, the fastest horses and the strongest horses are always found in the wild as they can spawn that way. The reason being is because the foal gets its traits from it parents based on an average.

Baby horses (foals) can grow up faster if the player uses golden apples or wheat on them.

Horses will heal over time while a player rides them, and only will heal while near hay bales when a player is not riding them. Feeding horses golden apples or golden carrots *will **not*** heal them.

Players can use a splash potion of healing or regeneration on the horse while riding it, or throwing it directly at it while dismounted, which is the fastest way to heal horses.