How to Tame a Horse in Minecraft
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How to Tame a Horse in Minecraft
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A fast, saddled horse with Diamond Horse Armor is one of the best mid-game transport upgrades in Minecraft — it outpaces sprinting with no hunger cost and can jump over 3-block-high obstacles that stop players on foot. Finding your ideal horse requires testing a few candidates for speed, but once you have a fast one it dramatically changes how you explore the world. Pair it with a Map for efficient exploration of unexplored biomes before you unlock Elytra.
Frequently Asked Questions
⚡ Quick Answer
How to Tame a Horse Step by Step
Approach a horse with empty hands and right-click to mount it. It will buck you off — repeat until hearts appear, which means it’s tamed. Feed it Sugar, Wheat, Apples, Golden Carrots, Golden Apples, or Hay Bales between attempts to raise its temper faster. Once tamed, place a Saddle on it to ride and steer it.
1Find a horse — horses spawn in Plains and Savanna biomes in herds of 2–6. They come in 7 base colours (white, chestnut, bay, black, grey, dark bay, pinto) and 5 marking patterns. Stats (speed, jump, HP) vary per horse, not by appearance.
2Empty your hand (select an empty hotbar slot) and right-click the horse to mount. You’ll have no control at first — each horse has a hidden temper value (0–99) that must be exceeded before it tames.
3When the horse bucks you off, right-click to mount again immediately. Each mount attempt raises the horse’s temper by a random amount. Keep remounting until you see red hearts appear around the horse — this confirms it’s tamed.
4To speed up taming, feed the horse before each mount — right-click it with food in hand. Golden Carrots (+5 temper) and Golden Apples (+10 temper) raise temper the most. Sugar (+3) and Wheat (+3) are cheaper alternatives. Hay Bales (+10, but mostly for healing/breeding).
5Once tamed, open the horse’s inventory (press E while riding or Shift+right-click) and place a Saddle in the saddle slot. You can now steer with WASD, sprint with Space held, and jump with Space tapped. Horse armor goes in the adjacent slot for protection.
→Choose a fast horse — speed varies significantly between horses (4.7–14.5 blocks per second). Test speed by riding briefly before committing. The fastest horses move nearly as fast as a sprinting player with Speed II, making them excellent for long-distance travel.
→Lead and pen your tamed horse immediately — tamed horses still wander freely if not leashed or fenced. Craft a Lead (4 String + 1 Slimeball) to tether it to a fence post near your base so it doesn’t wander off overnight.
→Horse armor provides protection without needing a saddle — Diamond Horse Armor gives the most protection (11 armor points). Found in dungeon and temple chests, or crafted from leather. Equip it alongside the saddle for combat-ready mounted travel.
→You can transport horses over water using a Boat — lead the horse into a boat to carry it across rivers and oceans. This is the standard method for moving tamed horses between biomes.
Where do horses spawn in Minecraft?Horses spawn naturally in Plains and Savanna biomes in herds of 2–6. They’re common in these biomes and relatively easy to find. If you’re struggling to locate them, explore outward from your spawn in flat areas — Plains biomes are one of the most common biome types in Minecraft.
Do I need a saddle to tame a horse?No — taming and saddling are separate steps. You tame the horse first (mount until hearts appear), then place a Saddle in its inventory slot to steer it. Without a Saddle, a tamed horse follows you and can be ridden briefly but cannot be steered. See our Saddle guide for how to get one.
Can tamed horses be bred?Yes — feed two tamed horses Golden Apples or Golden Carrots to breed them. The foal’s stats are an average of both parents plus a random bonus, making repeated selective breeding a way to produce exceptionally fast, high-jumping horses over several generations.
How do I know if a horse is fast?There’s no visual indicator of horse speed — you have to test it by riding. Fast horses noticeably cover more ground per second. Alternatively, use a speed potion on yourself and compare — if the horse keeps pace with you under Speed II effect, it’s a fast one worth keeping.