Minecraft: How to Tame a Horse

Updated:

15 Mar 2022

Minecraft: How to Tame a Horse

Check out this handy video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1RSuQSv8LA

Video by: EKGaming

In Minecraft, it’s often necessary to travel long distances. Walking is far too slow, and sprinting is inefficient, also - in addition to using up your stamina, it’s not even all that much quicker than walking. Luckily, there is an alternative - horses, donkeys, and mules! They may seem stubborn to tame, but it’s worth the time and effort.

You won’t be able to tell your horse where to go without a Saddle.
- Saddles are, as of 1.18, not craftable items, which means if you want to steer your horse, you’ll have to acquire a saddle through other means.
- Fishing, looting villages, trading with villagers, conquering dungeons, and exploring temples are all good ways to look for saddles.
- It also helps to have leads, apples, and horse armor, but none of these are strictly required. For donkeys, you can even attach chests to use the donkeys as extra storage space.
Step 1: Pick a horse.
- Once you’ve found a herd of horses in the wild, which is fairly easy to do, especially if you’re near a Plains Biome, choosing your horse can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
- You could pick a horse based on appearances, if that’s what’s important to you, but you could also hop onto the horses’ backs by using your interact key to get a look at their stats. From there, you can check the size of their health bar to get an idea of how tough each horse is.
Step 2: Try, try again.
- Use your interact key to mount your horse. The horse will likely buck you off - this is normal. Just keep using the interact key to climb back on.
- Eventually, the horse will calm down and accept you as a rider. When this happens, red hearts will appear around you. This indicates that the horse has been tamed.
Step 3: Equip your steed.
- Once the horse is tamed, you can use your inventory key to open the horse’s inventory and can drag various tools and accessories into the inventory slots, like armor and a saddle.
  - Donkeys and mules cannot wear horse armor.