You tamed a horse in Minecraft, but the beast still has a mind of its own — it absolutely will not follow your lead. 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, exploration, and fishing. If you’re brave, you can even take on a Ravager just to ride your horse.
Here you will find instructions on where you can find a saddle and who will trade for it.
Trade for a saddle
You can get a saddle from Leatherworker villagers. If you don’t see any in the surrounding villages, you can always place a cauldron and spawn a villager (if possible). 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.
Unfortunately, as shown above, you can’t continuously level up the villager in one visit. Eventually, he will run out of items to trade and only refreshes his stock twice a day if he has access to the cauldron.
Once you get the Leatherworker to Level 5 (Master), your chance of acquiring a saddle jumps up to 50%.
Get saddles from 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, how to find these locations, and your chances of finding a saddle in percentages.
Abandoned mineshafts (percentage unknown)
You can find mineshafts underground covered in cobwebs (bring shears). You’ll also find them on the surface in Badlands biomes. They’re typically inhabited by giant spiders, skeletons, and other baddies.
Desert temples (23.5%)
Here we discovered a hole in the center of this temple’s floor leading to a chamber below. There we found four chests containing rotten flesh, horse armor, string, and more.
Dungeons (28.3%)
You can find dungeons in caves. They’re based on mossy stone bricks and cobblestone. In the center you’ll typically see a fire pit that spawns monsters, which in turn are guarding the chest(s).
End City (13.3%)
To get to the End City, you’ll need to travel to the End and defeat the Ender Dragon. Once it’s defeated, you must use an Ender Pearl to pass through a small portal and reach the End City. For this guide, End City also included a searchable End Ship, which produced a saddle along with other goodies.
Jungle temples (12.9%)
Unlike desert temples, jungle temples are a lot harder to find given all the trees and vines. They’re constructed with cobblestone, mossy cobblestone, and vines. Go inside, walk down the stairs, and disable all traps before attempting to retrieve the temple’s treasures.
Nether Fortress (35.3%)
To get into the Nether, you need to build a Nether Portal using obsidian blocks along with flint and steel. Once you step through, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a Nether Fortress in the murky red underworld. Just remember that every one block of travel in the Nether translates to eight blocks in the Overworld.
Strongholds (2.5%)
Like jungle temples, strongholds are difficult to find. However, these areas are not obscured by vegetation. Instead, they’re buried deep underground with no entrance or exit. In addition to chests, strongholds have libraries, jails, and an End Portal leading you to the Ender Dragon battle and the game’s end credits.
Villages (varies)
You can get saddles from chests owned by Blacksmiths and Tanners in any village. You can also get saddles from chests within Savanna houses located in the Savanna biomes. The landscape has greenish-brown grass and leaves while the rooftops are orange, as shown above. Here are the chances for these three specific chests:
- Blacksmith chests – 16.2%
- Savanna house chests – 11.3%
- Tanner chests – 17.3%
Fish for a chest
This is the least likely method to produce a saddle, with a 0.8% chance. Still, if you’ve never fished in Minecraft, now is a good time to learn.
Step 1: Open your Crafting Table and combine three sticks with two pieces of string, as shown below. Don’t have these ingredients? Here’s how to make them:
- 2 wood plank blocks = 4 sticks
- 1 cobweb = 9 string (string is also dropped by spiders)
Step 2: Equip your fishing rod, step up to the water, and cast your line. You can cast by performing the following:
- PC – Press the right-click button
- Console – Press the left trigger
- Mobile – Tap the Fish button
Step 3: A trail of bubbles crosses the water toward your lure. When it dips underwater, press or tap the appropriate button.
Kill a Ravager
Typically, you can find Ravagers near villages as they attack the villagers. With Pillagers on their back, they’ll appear in mobs of five. Otherwise, non-mounted Ravagers spawn in groups of three to seven. You’ll also find them located near Pillager Outposts. They’re extremely hostile, so bring iron golems, use a ranged weapon, or wield a diamond sword and armor.
Turn on the cheats!
If you don’t want to make any effort in obtaining a saddle, you can always create a world using the Creative mode. Everything Minecraft has to offer is shoved into your inventory. No questions asked.
But if you already created a world, you can still activate a “cheat” mode that allows you to enter commands. Here’s how for most platforms:
- Java Edition – Open to LAN > Allow Cheats: On > Start LAN World (you’ll need to do this every time you load the world)
- Windows 10 / Mobile – Settings > Game > Activate Cheats
- Console – Settings > Cheats > Activate Cheats
To enter a code, do the following:
- PC – Press the Enter or T key
- Console – Press right on the D-Pad
- Mobile – Tap the Chat button
For the saddle-related cheats, you can enter the following:
- /give playername saddle 1
- /summon EntityHorse ~ ~ ~ {Tame:1,SaddleItem:{id:329,Count:1}}
Now use the 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 do the following to tame a horse:
- PC – Press the right-click button
- Console – Press the left trigger
- Mobile – Tap the Mount button
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. Want to dismount without removing the saddle? Move on to the next step.
Step 4: To dismount, do the following:
- PC – Press the left Shift key
- Console – Press down on the Right Stick
- Mobile – Tap the Center button twice
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