Horse

Horses are passive mobs that can be ridden when tamed and saddled.

## Spawning

Horses spawn in plains and savannas in herds of 2–6. For horses, all combinations of color and markings are equally likely. All members of the herd have the same color, but markings may vary. 20% of all individual horses spawn as foals.

Villages naturally generate with stables and animal pens containing horses.

## Appearance

Each horse variant has unique features and markings, and a foal (baby) version. Adult horses are 1.4 blocks wide and long, and 1.6 blocks high. Foals start at half the size of adults, and in Bedrock Edition, get progressively bigger as they age. Unlike wolves and cats, the appearances of horses do not change once they have been tamed, though tame horses may be differentiated by giving them equipment.

Horses have a stocky build. They can have 1 of 7 base colors: white, buckskin, flaxen chestnut, bay, black, dapple gray, and dark bay; and 1 of 5 marking patterns: *no markings*, *stockings and blaze*, *paint*, *snowflake appaloosa* and *sooty*. In total, there are 35 possible horse coat combinations.

## Drops

Upon death, horses drop:

* 0–2 Leather. The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 with Looting III.
* 1–3 exp. when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
* Horse armor if the horse was already equipped
* Saddle if the horse was already equipped.

Upon successful breeding, 1–7 is dropped.

Killing a foal yields neither items nor experience.

## Usage

Tamed and saddled horses can be used as a means of transportation in the game. When ridden, they are able to move faster and jump higher than a normal player. Horses can be used to climb hills and jump fences, as some can jump high enough to clear up to five block heights, versus the player's maximum of about one (without jump boost). They can be ridden in water up to 2 blocks deep. In deeper water, the player is automatically dismounted.

Horses can be pulled along and tied up using a lead. Horses can swim behind a boat by using a lead.

### Equipment

Tamed horses have the following two slots available:

* Horse Armor Slot: For equipping horse armor. Exclusive to horses.
* Saddle Slot: For equipping a saddle.

Foals cannot be equipped.

Equipment can be placed on a horse by holding it and then right-clicking on the horse, or by accessing its inventory. A horse’s inventory can be accessed by mounting the horse and opening the player inventory or by sneaking and then pressing the "open inventory" button on the horse. A normal horse’s inventory has two slots, one for a saddle and one for horse armor.

### Riding

Once a horse is tamed and saddled, the player can control it with standard directional controls, jump, and the mouse. The player dismounts using the dismount control.

When riding a horse, the hunger bar is replaced by the horse's health in Survival or Adventure mode.

A player can use any item while riding a horse, including drinking or throwing potions; activating doors, or redstone devices; using chests, crafting tables, and furnaces; breaking and placing blocks; and attacking with melee weapons or bows.

A ridden horse automatically runs up any one block high slope. The horse and rider can safely fit through a space as low as 2.75 blocks high. Lower clearance risks suffocating the rider if the rider's head enters a non-transparent block. The horse itself can enter gaps as low as 1.625 blocks high, but may itself take suffocation damage when clearance is less than 1.75 blocks. Horses cannot fit through a 1-block-wide gap.

The maximum speed of horses varies between 4.74 blocks/second and 14.23 blocks/second (compared to the player's walking speed, which is about 4.3 blocks/second). About 68% of horses are able to go faster than a minecart. Horses move backward slowly, about as fast as the player when moving sideways. A horse’s speed can also be affected by potions. Speed has no relation to a horse’s outward appearance.

A ridden horse can be made to jump and holding the control charges for a higher leap. Horses are not affected by jump boost beacons or potions. The standard dismount control dismounts from the horse, as does going in water deeper than two blocks. Like the player, horses take fall damage when falling from heights.

It is impossible for a player to use a Nether portal while on a horse. It is possible, however, to enter the portal on the horse and then dismount, sending the horse through the portal on its own, or use a lead to position the horse, then push it through the portal.

## Behavior

Horses wander aimlessly, occasionally stopping to rear, flick their tails, or lower their heads as though eating the grass. Unlike sheep, the eating animation does not actually cause any grass to be consumed. If a player comes near, the horses may turn to look at them. Any horse, even a wild or undead horse, can be attached to a lead without protest, although an untamed horse rears and flails its forelegs if saddled. Horses remain passive, even when hit.

Horses make neighing and whinnying sounds.

Horses, like most mobs, can ride in a minecart or a boat. Adult horses cannot ride in boats.‌ Unlike other passive mobs, horses slowly regenerate health.

Tamed (and untamed‌ horses can be led by a player holding a golden carrot, golden apple, or enchanted golden apple. Baby horses follow adult horses.

### Taming

Taming a horse is required to breed it, to give it equipment, or to control it while riding.

A player mounts a horse by pressing use on it with an empty hand, or while holding an object that cannot be used on a horse. A player tames an adult horse by repeatedly mounting it until the horse stops bucking off the player. Taming depends on the horse's "temper". Horses begin with a temper of 0 out of 100. When a player first mounts the horse, a random taming threshold 0–99 is chosen. The horse becomes tame if the temper exceeds this threshold. Otherwise, the player is bucked off and the temper is increased by 5, to be compared against the threshold the next time the player mounts the horse. Temper can also be increased by feeding the horse.

After repeated mountings, hearts appear above the horse, indicating that it is tamed.

In Bedrock Edition, like all tame animals, when a horse is killed, a death message is displayed to every player.

### Breeding

Feeding two tamed horses golden apples or golden carrots activates love mode, causing them to mate and produce a foal. The foal appears more spindly than adult horses and grows in stages to full size with time. The foal can be fed to make it mature faster.

Depending on the variations of the parent horses, the offspring can be one of several types.

* Bred with a horse: Breeding two horses produces a horse foal. Usually, the new foal has the color and markings of one of its parents, although there is a 13/45 chance of having a random color/markings (which may still end up being the same as one of the parents).
* Bred with donkey: Cross-breeding a horse with a donkey creates a mule foal. Mules cannot breed. This unlocks the Artificial Selection achievement.‌

This is a table representing the probabilities of the color and markings of the foal when breeding two horses A and B.

 Markings of B
 Random markings
 *Total* | 44.44%

### Food

Feeding a horse food can alter its behavior, cause it to grow (if it is not yet an adult; foals normally take 20 minutes to fully mature if not fed), and/or restore its health. The table below lists the effects of the various foods horses can take. Zombie and skeleton horses cannot be fed, even if tamed.

To feed a horse, hold a valid food item and press use on the horse. Feeding invalid food causes the player to mount the horse. Horses can be fed only when feeding would have an effect, similar to other animals.

## Statistics

See also: Tutorials/Horses

All horses have three "equine stats" that vary from horse to horse: health, (maximum) movement speed, and jump height. These stats are created once the horse is born or spawned, and are not affected by food.

### Spawned values

When spawned in any way except breeding – for instance, using commands, spawning naturally, spawning as part of a skeleton trap, or using spawn eggs – horses are assigned their stats within certain ranges.

#### Health

Horse's hearts ranges from 15–30, with an average of 22.5 × 11.25. Displayed hearts are health, divided by two, rounded down. A horse with an odd number of health points (15, 17, 19, etc.) does not show the last half-heart. One may test this by hitting a horse: if the horse has lost one-half heart from one punch, it has an even number of health points. Otherwise, odd.

#### Movement speed

Horse's movement speed ranges from 0.1125–0.3375 in internal units, with an average of 0.225. For reference, the player's normal walking speed is 0.1. The conversion factor between internal units and b/s is roughly 43.17. The speed listed does not include any status effect that affects the speed of the horse or the player.

A horse's maximum speed is 14.57 blocks/second, and the average horse speed is about 9.7 blocks/sec.

* Minimum: 4.86 blocks/sec.
* Player speed (walking): 4.32 blocks/sec.
* Player speed (sprinting): 5.61 blocks/sec.

See also *transportation methods* to compare the speeds of various transportation methods.

#### Jump strength

Horse's jump strength ranges from 0.4–1.0, with an average of 0.7.

A jump strength of 0.5 is enough to clear 1 9⁄16 blocks, while 1.0 is enough to clear 5 1⁄4 blocks.

### Bred values

When breeding two horses, or a horse and a donkey, the foal's stats are determined by averaging both parent's stats with a third set, randomly determined as above (i.e. add both parents' stats with the random value and divide by 3). Random values are used for the third set even when the value is not normally randomized for donkeys.

The variant of the child has an 11% chance to be a random base color, and a 20% chance to have random markings. Otherwise, it chooses the values from one of its parents.

## See Also

* Mobs
* Mad Pony