You tamed a horse in Minecraft, but the beast still has a mind of its own -- it absolutely will not follow your lead. You can corral it inside a fence, but trying to ride it isn't working like you hoped. Aside from flying, horses are one of the fastest ways to travel, but to take control of your mount, you need a saddle. If you’re hoping to find out how to make a saddle using the Crafting Table, we have bad news: You simply can’t make a saddle. For some reason, developer Mojang doesn’t make a saddle a craftable item. Instead, you need to obtain it in different ways, including trades at villages, exploration, and fishing. If you’re brave, you can even take on a Ravager just to ride your horse. Here are all the tips you need on how to get a saddle.
How to trade for a saddle
The easiest way to get a saddle is to trade for one at a village.
Step 1: Find a village and look for the leatherworker.
Step 2: You’ll need to level up the villager, however, as it won’t offer a saddle until it reaches Level 3. This is accomplished by trading emeralds, leather, rabbit hide, flint, and whatever else the villager wants.
Step 3: Once you get the leatherworker to Level 5 (Master), your chance of acquiring a saddle jumps up to 50%.
How to find saddles in chests
If you don’t want to level up a Leatherworker, your next best bet is to head out and find a saddle packed into a chest. Luckily for you, there are plenty of places to look. Unfortunately, you’re not guaranteed a saddle each time you crack open a chest. Below we provide the locations and your chances of finding a saddle in percentages.
- Abandoned mineshafts (percentage unknown)
- Desert temples (23.5%)
- Dungeons (27.9%)
- End City (13.3%)
- Jungle temples (12.9%)
- Nether Fortress (35.3%)
- Strongholds (2.5%)
How to get a saddle from fishing
This is the least likely method to produce a saddle, with a 0.8% chance. Simply fish like you would for a normal fish and just hope that you end up pulling a saddle out of the water.
How to use a saddle
You didn’t go through all this trouble just for a conversation piece. Slap that saddle on a horse and giddy-up!
Step 1: Make sure you are empty-handed and interact with the horse.
Step 2: The horse may or may not try to buck you off. If it does, repeat step 1 until the horse gives up.
Step 3: While still sitting on the horse, open your inventory. You should see the horse’s inventory combined with yours. Drag the saddle from your inventory up into the top square with a gray saddle icon. Once it’s applied, the horse icon will change.
Now that you have a saddle on the horse, you can steer it wherever you like.
