Horses are passive Mobs in Minecraft that can be found outside in the world, be tamed, and ridden. They make great travel companions as they are not only faster than the Player, but also quite sturdy.
With many different color combinations to chose from among Minecraft Horses, did you know that not all Horses are equally fast or strong?
Their speed can vary at random and there are Horses who are on average faster than others. So how can you pick out the best Horse for your survival world?
Where to Find Horses
Horses can generally be found in two different Biomes: The Plains and the Savannah Biome. There they spawn naturally in groups called herds.
In a single herd there can be 2-6 Horses and all of them will have the same color. What could set them apart is the marking variations on their backs, but Horses from the same herd always have the same color.
In total there’s 7 different colors with 5 different patterns. This means there’s 35 different looks a Horse could have.
There is also a 20% chance that Horses spawn as Foals in the herd. These Foals will have the same color as the rest of the herd.
Additionally, you can also find Horses in Villages where they are kept in pens by the Villagers. These can be interacted with and tamed without any issue as Villagers do not interact with the Mob.
How to Tame a Horse
Taming a Horse is a little different to other tamable Mobs. With other Mobs you usually have to feed them their preferred Food Item in order to tame them. Horses require no food to be tamed.
Horses in Minecraft have differing tempers which affect how easy it is to tame one.
To tame a Horse you have to right click on it with an empty hand. This will make you “hop” on it. The Horse will usually kick you off at least once. The more it kicks you off the more temperamental the Horse is.
The Horse will be tamed once you climb on top of it and heart particles fly out around you, after which the Horse doesn’t kick you off anymore (with the exception of entering deep Water).
Once a Horse is tamed you can equip it with Armor and a Saddle which will protect it and allow you to control its movement. Riding a Horse is pretty similar to riding Llamas in Minecraft, except Horses are much faster.
While riding on a Horse you are still able to hold any of your Tools or Weapons in your hands. This allows you to be able to fight and use a Shield if you need to.
Horse Speed
The speed of a Horse varies and is decided randomly when the Horse spawns. The colors or markings on a Horse do not influence its speed whatsoever.
In the game there exists and equation that determines the speed of a Horse and it plays a part when breeding two Horses. Generally the speed of two horses will be added up along with a third random value and then be divided by 3.
So, for a faster Horse it would generally be good to breed two fast Horses together. Though, the third value can still make the outcome unpredictable.
The minimum speed for a Horse is 4.9 blocks per second when walking, with a maximum being 14.6 blocks per second.
In comparison, when sprinting, the Player moves at a speed of about 5.5 blocks per second.
None of these numbers include status effects, which means that Horses can go faster than their maximum speed.
Making a Horse Move Faster
In Minecraft a Player can use Potions to add different status effects to themselves. Some of them can help with gameplay, others can cause damage or harm.
There are also throwable variants of Potions called Splash Potions and these can be thrown at Players and Mobs alike to apply status effects. Poisonous Splash Potions can be thrown at Mobs to inflict damage to them, but Potions that give healing or buffs can be thrown at Entities to give them these effects.
Same can be done to Horses. If you throw a Splash Potion of Swiftness at your Horse it will gain a speed boost which could help it exceed their maximum speed limit.
The best way to use this is while you’re already riding your Horse. Throwing the Splash Potion at the ground will give you both the status effect as the Potion splashes around you two. Throwing the Potion at the Horse from a distance will likely damage and knockback the Horse.
