How to breed horses in Minecraft?

How to breed horses in Minecraft?

Riding a horse in Minecraft allows you to travel much faster than sprinting. Before you can do that, you have to find a horse and tame it. But did you know that you can also breed horses? Minecraft allows you to do this to produce better offspring or better colors.

In Minecraft, breeding horses is not very complicated from a practical point of view, but when you dive deep into the genetic aspect, it can become more complicated. But regardless, raising two horses or a horse and a donkey in the game can be quite fun, as the foals can have random characteristics. However, before breeding horses, you need a few ingredients.

Materials required to breed horses in Minecraft

To breed horses, you need two golden apples or golden cores. Either one will work, but you need to make them or buy them from villagers.

To make them, you'll need to grow carrots and/or apples and mine gold. But all of them can also be bought from the villagers. Apples can also be obtained from oak trees.

To make a golden apple, proceed as follows:

1. Break off a few oak or dark oak leaves until you have at least two apples.

how to breed horse in minecraft
2. Mine for gold.

how to breed horse in minecraft
3. Melt the gold nuggets into gold bars.

how to make horses breed in minecraft
4. Go to your craft table.
5. Place the apple in the middle slot.

how to make horses breed in minecraft
6. Surround the apple with gold bars.

how to make horses breed in minecraft
7. Get a gold apple.
8. Repeat for more gold apples as you will need at least two.

For the golden carrots, you will follow different steps:

1. Harvest carrots in a village or at home.

how to breed a horse in minecraft

2. Mine gold.

how to breed a horse in minecraft


3. Melt gold nuggets into gold bars.

how to breed horse in minecraft
4. Go back to your craft table.
5. Place the carrot in the middle slot.

how to breed horse in minecraft
6. Surround the carrot with gold bars.

how to breed horse in minecraft
7. Get a golden carrot.
8. Repeat for more golden carrots as you will need at least two.

Gold can be mined or found in chests, either as gold nuggets or gold bars. Melting gold ore and gold ore from the Nether also yields gold bars. Mining gold ore from the Nether also yields gold nuggets, and nine of them can be turned into gold bars.

Now that you have enough food for breeding, it's time to get your horses.

How to tame horses in Minecraft?

You don't need any ingredients to tame a horse, but you do need patience and luck. Horses can be found in the plains and savannahs, and they usually don't run away from you. You can even attach leashes to wild horses and they won't protest.

Here's how you will tame wild horses:

1. Approach the horse you want to tame.
2. Press the use button (right click or left trigger) on the horse.

how to breed horse in minecraft

3. The horse will probably put you off, but don't be afraid.

how to breed horse in minecraft
4. Repeat until the hearts start to appear.

how to breed horse in minecraft
5. Now you can saddle the horse or breed it.


Feeding the horse apples, wheat, golden apples, golden carrots or hay bales can also help tame your horse sooner. However, these foods are totally optional and you don't need to have them to tame a horse.

Horses have a "temperament" statistic, which can range from zero to 99. The first time you ride a wild horse, it is assigned a random temperament number. If you have a number above 95, you have instantly tamed it.

If you don't instantly tame it, you'll be turned away, but the temperament value will increase by five. Keep persevering until it reaches 100, which is when the hearts start to appear.

Since you will be trying to breed horses, you will need two. Alternatively, you can replace one horse with a donkey. Donkeys are technically variations of horses, and are found in herds of two to six donkeys, just like horses.

Donkeys spawn on the plains and savannahs just like horses. Horses and donkeys also have a 20% chance of breeding as foals.

How to breed a horse in Minecraft?

Now that you have your horses and your breeding food, it's time to start breeding. The breeding process takes less than three seconds and you will get a foal right after. You will need to feed the horses again if you want more foals.

Here's how to breed horses in Minecraft:

1. Set up your breeding food.

how to make horses breed in minecraft

2. Give it to your two horses.

how to make horses breed in minecraft
3. Let them meet.

how to make horses breed in minecraft
4. Once they meet, they will start mating.
5. Two and a half seconds later, a foal will be found nearby.

how to make horses breed in minecraft
6. Repeat if necessary.

If you want to re breed your horses, you will have to wait five minutes. During this time, your horses will still follow you if you have the breeding food, but they will not eat it. Once the five minutes are up, you can breed them again.

Horses, like all animals and creatures you can breed in , leave "love mode" after 30 seconds of eating a breeding food and not finding another horse to breed with. You'll have to feed it again to get it into love mode, but it doesn't have to wait five minutes.
Breeding a horse and a donkey will result in a mule foal. The mules themselves cannot reproduce and produce offspring. In Bedrock Edition, you will receive the success Artificial Selection.

When a foal is born and grows, you can repeat the taming process. You are more than welcome to feed your foals and make them grow faster, but if you prefer to manage other tasks like mining and fishing, you can always put the foal in a pen and let it grow slowly. Without feeding, all foals grow up in 20 minutes.

All breeding gives you one to seven experience points. The number is not predetermined.

Horse bracelet

Things to do with horses in Minecraft

You can saddle a horse and ride it anywhere in the world. Depending on the horse's stats, its speed may be slightly faster than a sprint or at least three times faster. These stats are random, but repeated breeding can allow you to breed faster and higher jumping horses.

The saddles also offer you an extra place to keep an object on the horse.

Riding a horse is done by using the mouse movements and keys to travel. Horses can also jump over obstacles. The best horses can jump over five blocks, while the weakest are barely able to clear two blocks.

You can also make armor for your horse for extra protection. The armor prevents the horse from being killed quickly, but does not prevent the horse from being injured if it falls.

Only horses can wear horse armor, unlike skeleton horses, zombie horses, donkeys and mules. However, the latter two can be equipped with chests to give you 15 extra slots. This reflects the nature of donkeys and mules as pack animals.
With a horse, you can explore the overworld much faster than a simple sprint. You also don't need to carry as much food, because horses are not hungry. You can feed them if they are badly injured, although they have health regeneration abilities.

Horse ring

What is the difference between a horse, a mule and a donkey in Minecraft?

Horses can wear armor and are generally faster. Donkeys cannot wear armor but can be bred with horses to produce mules. Mules cannot be bred but can carry chests like donkeys.

All three animals are capable of achieving the same maximum potential statistics, so mules can be as fast as horses with proper breeding.

Selective breeding is effective

Now that you know how to breed horses in Minecraft, you can repeat the process as much as necessary to get the best horses. It may take some time, but the results are well worth your time. You'll have a sturdy, fast and strong horse to accompany you on your adventures.
Do you have a particular color or marking for your horses? Which of the three animals do you prefer to ride? Tell us in the comments section below.

Read more about horses:
How long do horses live?
how to draw a horse?
Do horses sleep standing up?
how much does a horse cost?

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