What Do Horses Eat In Minecraft? The Complete Guide In 2023

Horses are one of the most common animals you can easily spot in Minecraft. But do you know that you need to feed the horse to tame them and also to restore their health? However, you need to feed them the right food. So, if you want to know what do horses eat in Minecraft, we have the complete guidebook for you.

Horses typically eat six things in Minecraft, which are wheat, sugar, apple, hay, golden apple, and golden carrot. Feeding wheat, sugar, and apple will restore their health and improve their temper. And if you want them to breed, feed them golden apples or carrots.

Although these six main food items are daily staples for the horse in Minecraft, there are many other things that horses also eat in the game. But, before you reveal those, let’s understand the typical features of horses and how to ride them properly.

What Horses Generally Eat In Minecraft?

Horse in Minecraft east everything that a horse eats in the natural world. And there are six types of horse food in Minecraft that you can generally find in this game which are as follows.

• Wheat: The chance of taming an untamed horse will slightly increase if you feed wheat. It will also speed up the growth of a baby horse by 20 in-game seconds. Besides, wheat will also heal one heart.
• Apple: Feeding apples will also increase the taming chance for an untamed horse. It will speed up the growth of a baby horse by one minute and will also heal one and a half hearts.
• Golden Apple: You can feed golden apples to a pair of horses to make them breed. It will speed up the growth of a baby horse by four minutes. Besides, both golden apples and enchanted golden apples will also heal five hearts.
• Golden Carrot: You can also feed golden carrots to an adult pair to make them breed. Besides, it will speed up the growth of a baby horse by one minute. It will also heal two hearts.
• Sugar: Besides wheat, sugar is the most common food for horses in Minecraft. It will help you tame an untamed horse and will also speed up the baby horse’s growth by 30 seconds. Besides, it will also heal half a heart.
• Hay Bales: You can’t feed hay bales to adult horses. But, if you feed these to baby horses, it will speed up the growth by three minutes. It is also an excellent healing tool as it can add 10 hearts.

Besides these food items, horses also eat a variety of other foods that don’t affect much on their health and recovery.

How To Properly Feed A Horse In Minecraft?

Once you have properly understood how to tame a horse by feeding it, you now need to know how horses eat in Minecraft java edition. And it can be done in just two simple steps.

Step 1: Find A Horse

You can easily spot a horse in the Plains biome in Minecraft. If you can’t locate them on your map, you can alternatively spawn an egg to produce a horse. Besides, you can also summon one with a cheat code.

Step 2: Feed The Food

You need to select the food item, such as wheat or sugar, on your hot bar first before you proceed with the feeding procedure. Besides, you need to make sure that the horse is hungry, which will show in the hunger bar. Otherwise, even a tamed horse won’t eat anything.

If you forget to select the food first on the hot bar, you may mount yourself on the horse if you use the feed command. So, you need to make sure that you are using the right steps to feed the horses. Once any horse eats any food item, it will automatically disappear from your hot bar. And once you start feeding a baby horse, it will automatically start growing.

Game Controls For Feeding A Horse

Although feeding a horse is no big deal in Minecraft, the controls will be different depending on the system or console you are using to play the game. And the controls are as follows.

• Java Edition (Windows/Mac): Right-click on the horse (both Windows and Education editions)
• Pocket Edition (PE): Move your pointer over a horse and tap the “Feed” button
• PlayStation (PS3/PS4): Press the L2 button
• Xbox (Xbox 360/Xbox One): Press the LT button
• Wii (U): Press the ZL button
• Nintendo (Switch): Press the ZL button

What Will Happen If You Feed Horses In Minecraft

You must have already understood what do horses eat in Minecraft. And now, it’s time to know what will happen if you feed them. There are three things that will happen. First, feeding will help them with filling up the heart. Second, it will speed up the growth of baby horses. And third, it will increase their temper.

When you get an injured heart, feed some food to recover its health. And if you feed baby horses with better food items, they will start growing up. Feeding will also increase the temper, which is directly proportional to the taming chance. The temper will vary between 0 and 100. The higher the number of tempers, the higher your chance to tame that horse. Feeding will also help increase the temper of wild horses.

If you feed horses golden food items, they will enter into a “Love Mode” where they will start breeding. And it will give you a baby horse which you can then feed to make it an adult one. Interestingly, you can breed a horse with a donkey in Minecraft. But remember, you can’t feed any skeleton horse or zombie horse.

Depending on the type of food you feed your horses, temper, growth, and healing will increase accordingly.

Food	Healing Value	Temper Value	Growth Progression
Sugar	1 HP (½ Heart)	3	30 Seconds
Wheat	2 HP (1 Heart)	3	20 Seconds
Apple	3 HP (1½ Hearts)	3	60 Seconds
Golden Apple	10 HP (5 Hearts)	10	4 Minutes
Golden Carrot	4 HP (2 Hearts)	5	60 Seconds
Hay Bale	20 HP (10 Hearts)	NA	3 Minutes

Features Of Horses In Minecraft

Before you know what do horses eat in Minecraft bedrock, you need to know about their features to tame and feed them properly. There are two types of horses you can generally find on Minecraft. First, the full-length one. And second, the foal one (baby version). And each variant of these horses has distinct markings and unique characteristics.

There are seven base colors of horses typically found in Minecraft, which are white, black, dapple grey, flaxen chestnut, bay, dark bay, and buckskin. And there are five distinct markings that can also be found which are no marking, sooty, paint, stocking, and snowflake appaloosa. So, you can get 35 (7×5) different versions of horses in this game.

Adult full-size horses in Minecraft are 1.4 blocks in length and width and 1.6 blocks in height. Foal horses take exactly half the size required for an adult horse. However, in bedrock edition, these foal horses eventually grow and become adult horses. While wolves and dogs will change their colors once you tame them, you won’t witness any significant color changing in tamed horses.

However, you can easily identify a tamed horse by the equipment and armor it carries. You can also spot a tamed horse by its unique saddle, although these saddles won’t render if it is under invisibility enchantment.

How To Ride A Horse In Minecraft?

When you know what do horses eat in Minecraft, you are already one step closure to taming them. And as we have already said, you can distinguish a tame horse by its equipment and saddle. Once you have the saddle on any horse, you can easily control them with standard directional controls, jump controls, and a mouse. You can also unmount from the hour by the general dismount controls.

When you start riding a horse, the hunger bar will be automatically replaced with the health bar in the Adventure and Survival mode. You can also do various things while riding a horse, such as using the Redstone device, activating new doors on the map, opening chests, and even attacking with arrows. You can also practice the target while riding a horse. But, if you don’t know how to do it, follow our detailed guide on how to make a target block in Minecraft.

While riding a horse, a player with the horse can fit in any place that is just 2.75 blocks high. And you can also run with your horse up to a 1-block high slope. However, you need to understand that a horse can’t pass through a gap that is just one block wide.

The typical speed of any horse in Minecraft varies between 4.74 blocks/second and 14.23 blocks/second, depending on the variant of the horse. However, horses move slowly in the backward direction. And you can’t alter the speed of any horse, both frontwards and backward, with any potion or enchantment. But you also need to remember that you can’t take a horse while riding to the Nether portal.

Dismounting from a tamed horse is also pretty easy, and you can do it with general dismount control. But you’ll be automatically discounted if you enter in water with your horse that is more than two blocks deep.

What Are The Drops You Can Get From Horses?

After knowing what to feed horses in Minecraft, you must also know about the advantage of horses. When any tamed horse dies on your map, you’ll get some drops. You’ll also get some drops if a pair of your tamed horses start breeding. However, you won’t get any drop if you kill a foal horse.

There are four things you can typically get if any horse got killed on your map, which are as follows.

• EXP: 1 to 3 (If the horse is killed by a player or a tamed wolf)
• Leather: 0 to 2 (As your level of looting increases, the leather drop will increase by +1. So, if you have lotting III, you can get up to 5 leather points)
• Saddle: Only if the horse is tamed and equipped
• Armor: Only if the horse is tamed and equipped 

At times, you can even get some golden items from a horse drop, although the chance is extremely rare.

FAQs

Q. Do Minecraft horses need food?

Yes, like in the real world, horses in Minecraft also need to be fed. However, you can’t feed a zombie or a skeleton horse in Minecraft. And once you feed any untamed horse, it will increase your chance of taming. And if you feed a tamed horse, it will restore the health of that particular horse.

Q. What attracts horses in Minecraft?

You need something to attract horses for them to go into the “Love Mode” for breeding. And to do that, you need to feed them either a golden apple or a golden carrot. You can easily find these golden fruits in treasure chests all over the Nether World. However, you can also craft them on your own.

Q. What is the rarest horse in Minecraft?

Horses are common animals in any biome, especially in the Plains biome. And you can witness at least 35 different types of horses in Minecraft, depending on their color and markings. However, zombie horses are pretty rare in this game. But the rarest of them all is definitely the skeleton horse.

Q. How do you train a horse in Minecraft?

First, you need to feed the untamed horses something that will increase their temper points, such as wheat, sugar, or apple. And once the temper bar is close to 100, you can just try to ride on its back. Even if the horse topples you a couple of times, don’t lose hope, as it will let you ride on the back after a few attempts.

Conclusion

Like most other animals, you also need to tame a horse through food. You need to keep some wheat, sugar, and apples handy to start taming them. And always keep the rare items, such as golden apples or golden carrots, for special occasions. You can also guard your tamed horse by lighting a campfire. If you don’t know how to do it, follow our comprehensive guide on how to make a campfire in Minecraft. 

So, you must have already got the answer to what do horses eat in Minecraft. If you think we have missed any crucial point, or if you have something interesting to tell about the horses in Minecraft, feel free to drop your suggestions and feedback in the comment box below.