A tamed horse is the fastest way to get around early Minecraft, and taming one is simple once you know the trick.
This guide walks through every step, including how to tame a horse faster with food, where to get a saddle, and how to protect your horse with armor. Everything here is accurate for the latest 2026 version of Minecraft.
Quick answer: find a horse, empty your hand, and right-click it to mount. It’ll buck you off, so keep remounting. After a few tries hearts appear and it’s tamed. Feed it apples or golden carrots first to tame it faster, then add a saddle to ride it.
Where to Find Horses
Horses spawn in the open, grassy biomes. Look in:
- Plains
- Savanna
- Meadows (usually in groups)
You can also find horses, donkeys, and llamas kept in village stables. They usually appear in herds of two to six, so you’ll have a few to pick from.
How to Tame a Horse (Step by Step)
Taming a horse takes no items at all, just patience.
- Walk up to the horse with an empty hand (nothing selected in your hotbar).
- Right-click (use button) on the horse to mount it.
- The horse will buck you off. That’s normal.
- Immediately remount. Each attempt raises the horse’s hidden “temper.”
- Keep going until heart particles pop up around the horse. That means it’s tamed.
It usually takes only a handful of tries. Once you see the hearts, the horse is yours.
Feed the Horse to Tame It Faster
Feeding a horse before you mount it raises its temper, so it gets tamed in fewer tries. Hold the food and right-click the horse.
| Food | Taming boost |
|---|---|
| Sugar | Small |
| Wheat | Small |
| Apple | Small |
| Golden Carrot | Large |
| Golden Apple | Biggest |
A golden apple is the fastest option. Feed one, and you can often tame the horse on the first or second try. Golden carrots and apples double as great food in Minecraft, too.
How to Ride a Horse (You Need a Saddle)
Taming a horse lets you sit on it, but you can’t steer it without a saddle. This trips up a lot of players.
Once the horse is tamed, hold a saddle and right-click the horse (or open its inventory and place the saddle in the slot). Now you can control where it goes.
Here’s the catch: saddles can’t be crafted. You have to find one by:
- Looting chests in dungeons, Nether fortresses, desert temples, and villages
- Fishing (rare)
- Trading with a Leatherworker villager
- Finding it in a Master-level Fisherman’s trades
Protect Your Horse With Armor
A tamed horse can wear horse armor to survive fights and falls. Open the horse’s inventory (mount it, then open your inventory) and place armor in the armor slot.
Horse armor comes in leather, iron, gold, and diamond, with diamond giving the most protection. Like saddles, most horse armor is found in chests rather than crafted (leather horse armor can be crafted).
Donkeys, Mules, and Skeleton Horses
A few horse relatives work a little differently:
- Donkeys are tamed the same way and can carry a chest for extra storage.
- Mules are produced by breeding a horse with a donkey.
- Skeleton horses can’t be tamed normally; they spawn from “skeleton traps” during thunderstorms.
Once you have a tamed pair, you can make more. Here’s how to breed horses for faster and stronger foals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Approach it with an empty hand and right-click to mount it repeatedly. It will buck you off each time, but each attempt raises its temper. When heart particles appear, the horse is tamed.
You need a saddle. Taming lets you sit on the horse, but you can only steer it once a saddle is equipped. Saddles can’t be crafted, so you have to find or trade for one.
Feed it a golden apple first, then mount it. The golden apple raises its temper so much that it often tames on the first or second try.
Not normally. Skeleton horses spawn from skeleton traps in thunderstorms and behave differently from regular horses.
Saddles are found in chests (dungeons, Nether fortresses, temples, villages), caught while fishing, or bought from Leatherworker and Fisherman villagers. You cannot craft them.
Taming a horse is one of the first big upgrades in any survival world. Once you’ve got one saddled up, feed two tamed horses to breed even better ones, and check our guide on how to breed horses next.
