To breed horses in Minecraft, you need to feed two adult, tamed horses with a golden carrot or a golden apple. In this guide, we’ll go through all the steps of this process, from taming horses to finding a golden apple.
Steps to Breed Horses in Minecraft
Below you’ll find all the steps required to breed horses in Minecraft.
Find Two Adult Horses
The first step is to find two adult horses. Horses naturally spawn in biomes such as Plains and Savanna (including their variants), as well as near villages, so these are the places you should focus on when searching. Remember that for breeding to be possible, both horses must be adults – foals cannot breed.
Tame Both Horses
The next important step is to tame the horses, because without this you won’t be able to complete the following steps. To tame horses in Minecraft, you need to:
- Right-click the horse with an empty hand to mount it
- If it throws you off (which is normal), keep trying until it works
- When red hearts appear, it means the horse has been successfully tamed
Get Golden Apples or Golden Carrots
The next step is to obtain food for the horses – Golden Apples or Golden Carrots. These items are what trigger “love mode” and allow the horses to breed, resulting in a foal.
A Golden Carrot is slightly easier to obtain or craft, as you only need 1 carrot and 8 gold nuggets to make it. If you don’t have the resources and prefer to find it in structures, you can check places like Ancient Cities, Bastion Remnants, Ruined Portals, or Trial Chambers.
A Golden Apple is a bit more expensive to craft, since it requires 1 apple and 8 gold ingots. However, you can also find it while exploring structures such as Monster Rooms, Mineshafts, Desert Pyramids, Igloos, Ruined Portals, Strongholds, Trial Chambers, Ocean Ruins, or Woodland Mansions.
Use Golden Apples or Golden Carrots on Horses
The final step is to use a Golden Carrot or a Golden Apple on both horses in Minecraft. Simply right-click on each of the tamed horses while holding the selected item.
Once both horses are fed, red hearts will appear and they will move toward each other. After a short moment, a foal will appear, which means the breeding process was successful.
FAQ
What Food Makes Horses Breed in Minecraft?
To breed horses, you need golden carrots or golden apples. These are the only items that can activate love mode, allowing horses to breed and produce a foal. Other food, such as regular carrots or apples, will not work.
How Often Can You Breed Horses in Minecraft?
After breeding, horses enter a cooldown period of about 5 minutes, after which you can try to breed them again.
How to Breed a Horse and a Donkey in Minecraft?
If you want to breed a horse with a donkey in Minecraft, you need to feed both animals a golden carrot or a golden apple. This combination will result in a mule, which is very useful – it can carry chests like a donkey but is faster like a horse. The only downside is that mules cannot be bred.
How to Breed the Best Horse in Minecraft?
To breed the best horse in Minecraft, you need to focus on selective breeding and a bit of patience. The system is based on inheriting stats such as speed, jump height, and health, but it also includes an element of randomness, so not every foal will be better than its parents.
The best approach is to test horses and choose those with the highest stats, and then breed only the best individuals.
