To tame a horse in Minecraft, walk up to an adult horse with an empty hand and mount it over and over: it bucks you off at first, but every attempt calms it a little until hearts appear above it and it is yours. To actually steer it you then need a saddle, which you can now craft from three leather and one iron ingot. Below we cover the controls on every platform, the hidden temper system and the foods that speed taming up, saddles and armor, how to judge a horse’s stats, and how breeding works.
This is current for Minecraft Java Edition 26.3 and Bedrock Edition 26.50.
Where to Find Horses
Horses spawn in plains and savanna biomes in herds of two to six, and villages generate with stables and pens that often hold a few. All horses in a herd share a coat color, though their markings vary. About one in five spawns as a foal, and foals cannot be tamed or ridden until they grow up, which takes about 20 minutes.
How to Tame a Horse, Step by Step
- Empty your hand. On Java you must mount with an empty hand. On Bedrock you can hold any item that cannot be used on a horse.
- Mount the horse using the controls below.
- Get bucked off. An untamed horse rears and throws you. That is normal.
- Mount again, and keep going. It can take several tries.
- Watch for hearts. When red hearts appear above the horse, it is tamed.
| Action | PC (Java and Bedrock) | Xbox | PlayStation | Nintendo Switch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount or feed | Right-click | LT | L2 | ZL |
| Dismount | Left Shift | B | Circle | B |
| Open the horse’s inventory (while riding) | E | Y | Triangle | X |
| Jump (hold to charge, release to jump) | Space | A | Cross | A |
The Temper System Behind It
Per the community wiki, every horse starts with a temper of 0 out of 100, and the first time you mount it the game picks a random taming threshold between 0 and 99. Each failed attempt adds 5 temper, and the horse is tamed the moment its temper beats the threshold. That is why some horses take one try and others take a dozen.
You can shortcut this by feeding it first. Hold the food and use it on the horse:
| Food | Temper added | Health restored |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | +3 | 1 |
| Wheat | +3 | 2 |
| Apple or carrot | +3 | 3 |
| Golden carrot | +5 | 4 |
| Golden apple | +10 | 10 |
| Hay bale | None | 20 |
Hay bales are the cheapest way to heal a tamed horse later, since they restore the most health and are made from nine wheat.
Getting a Saddle
Saddles have been craftable since 2025 (Java 1.21.6 and Bedrock 1.21.90). In a crafting table, put leather in the top middle, middle left and middle right slots and an iron ingot in the center. Our guide on how to find iron covers that last part if you are short. Before that change, saddles only came from loot, and they still show up in chests: per the community wiki, the new abandoned camps from Wilderness Bound, Nether fortresses, and village tanneries and weaponsmiths are good places to look. Master-level leatherworker villagers sell them for emeralds, and fishing can occasionally pull one up.
To put it on, hold the saddle and use it on the horse, or mount the horse, open its inventory and drop the saddle into the saddle slot. Shears take a saddle or armor back off.
Horse Armor
Horse armor goes in the second slot and reduces damage. There are six kinds:
| Armor | Armor points | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Leather | 3 | Craft from seven leather |
| Copper | 4 | Chest loot |
| Iron | 5 | Chest loot |
| Golden | 7 | Chest loot |
| Diamond | 11 | Chest loot |
| Netherite | 19 | Upgrade diamond horse armor at a smithing table |
Ruined portal chests are a reliable early source of golden horse armor, and you will pass plenty of them while hunting for Nether portal obsidian.
Reading a Horse’s Stats
Every horse rolls three hidden stats. Per the community wiki, health runs from 15 to 30 points, top speed from about 4.9 to 14.6 blocks per second, and jump height from about 1.1 to 5.9 blocks. The game shows none of these as numbers in normal play, but there are tells: a horse that walks quickly on its own when nobody is riding it is usually fast, and on Java the health bar you see while riding shows how tough it is. Test a few horses from the same herd before settling on one.
Breeding a Better Horse
Feed two tamed adult horses a golden apple or golden carrot each and they produce a foal. Per the community wiki, the foal’s stats are based on the average of its parents plus some random variation, so breeding your two best horses together, then breeding the best foals, gradually produces faster horses and higher jumpers. Feeding a foal speeds up its growth. Since the Tiny Takeover drop in early 2026, a golden dandelion can also be used to keep a foal from growing up at all.
Breeding a horse with a donkey gives a mule, which cannot breed but can carry a chest.
Java and Bedrock Differences
- Java needs an empty hand to mount; Bedrock does not.
- On Bedrock, a tamed horse at full health can still be fed; on Java it cannot.
- Per the community wiki, on Bedrock you cannot ride through a Nether portal on a horse, and horses can ride in minecarts only on Bedrock.
If you are playing with friends, horses are one of the better ways to travel together, and Minecraft sits on our best co-op PS5 games list for that kind of shared world.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times do you have to ride a horse to tame it? It varies. Each failed attempt adds 5 temper against a random threshold, so it can take one try or many. Feeding golden apples or golden carrots first cuts it down.
Can you ride a horse without a saddle? You can sit on a tamed horse, but you cannot steer it without a saddle.
How do you make a saddle in Minecraft? Three leather and one iron ingot in a crafting table: leather in the top middle, middle left and middle right, and the iron ingot in the center.
What do you feed horses to breed them? Golden apples or golden carrots, one for each of two tamed adult horses.
Can you tame a baby horse? Not a wild one. Foals have to grow up before they can be tamed or ridden, which takes about 20 minutes unless you feed them to speed it up.