How to breed horses in Minecraft

Aakrit Sharma
Breeding horses in Minecraft

Horses are arguably the best mode of transportation in Minecraft, thanks to their speed and safety. Here’s how you can find, tame, and then breed horses in Minecraft.

Horses are passive mobs in Minecraft that become rideable after taming and equipping them with a saddle. There are 35 types of horses (based on color and pattern) and they randomly spawn in several biomes like Plains, Savanna, Sunflower Plains, and Villages.

From beginners to veterans, everyone wishes to have a horse and it is highly recommended to breed them near your house. It allows you to have the best horses in terms of speed, jumping ability, and health. Moreover, you can partially control the color and pattern of the horses you own.

Here’s a detailed guide to breeding horses in Minecraft.

Minecraft horse

How to tame a horse in Minecraft

To tame a horse in Minecraft, you can either sit on it repeatedly or feed it. Taming a horse is important because only two tamed horses can breed in the game.

A horse becomes tamed/friendly at 100 temper points. If you directly try to ride it, it kicks you off and this adds five temper points. This means that to tame a horse with zero temper, you’ll have to sit on it 20 times. On the other hand, a horse with a 90 temper should become friendly after sitting on it twice.

The other method to tame a horse is feeding it. Golden apples are the best food for a horse as each apple adds ten temper points. Other food items that can serve the purpose include sugar, wheat, carrot, Golden Carrots, Golden Apples, enchanted Golden Apples, and hay.

Tames Minecraft horses

How to ride horses in Minecraft

You need a saddle to ride a tamed horse in Minecraft. Riding is an important step before breeding because two horses must be close to each other in order to breed and you can control their movement only through a saddle.

You cannot craft a saddle, but these are the ways to obtain it from the open world:

  • Kill a ravager.
  • Search inside chests in Dungeons, Nether Fortresses, and Desert temples.
  • Fishing.

For more information on saddles, check out our guide on how to get a saddle in Minecraft.

How to get a baby horse by breeding horses in Minecraft

After taming and riding them, you can breed horses in Minecraft with the help of Golden Apples and Golden Carrots. Put two horses that you want to breed close to each other and put a fence around them so they don’t run away.

Now, feed a Golden Apple or a Golden Carrot to both horses. This should encourage the animals to breed and red hearts will appear above them. This indicates that the horses have entered love mode and in no time, you’ll have a baby horse.

Baby horses usually grow up in 20 minutes, but you can speed up this process by four minutes by feeding them a Golden Apple. This means that a baby horse grows up instantly if you feed it five Golden Apples.

The stats and color of a baby horse largely depend on its parents. However, the game also throws some random numbers related to jumping abilities and speed that can make the baby horse better or worse.

Breeding horses in Minecraft

Get the best horses in Minecraft through breeding

Breeding horses in Minecraft lets you get the best ones with the fastest speed and great jumping power. To do so, simply test horses by taming and riding them. Pick two of the best horses and breed them. If the baby horse has better stats, breed it again with the best horse that you own.

Continue this process till you get a horse with highly desirable health, speed, and jump stats. All these stats are uniquely useful in different circumstances, which is why it is wise to have a bunch of horses for every situation.


While this is everything you need to know about breeding horses, Mojang’s sandbox game has a wide range of other interesting features as well. If you’re finally using enchantments, make sure to check out our guides on Mending and uses of Smite in Minecraft.

Image Credits: Mojang

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About The Author

Aakrit is a games writer with over 2000 published articles for EssentiallySports, Sportskeeda, FortniteINTEL, and CharlieINTEL. Currently, he writes guides on Minecraft, Roblox, Pokemon games, Genshin Impact, and Brawlhalla. Aakrit loves playing shooter games and in his free time, you can find him queued up in Valorant, Fortnite, Apex Legends, or Halo Infinite. You can contact Aakrit at [email protected].