Featured Image credit: Mojang.
Horses are some of the best animals in Minecraft, as they are the fastest way to travel long distances in short periods outside of Elytra.
They come in several different colors and types, and you can even breed them to have extra health points, jump block heights, and overall speed.
So if you ever wanted to become a horse breeder in Minecraft, you can do that even without any mods!
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about healing horses in Minecraft so you can keep your cute companion healthy, safe, and going strong!
You might also like this illustrated guide on breeding Axolotls in Minecraft.
Healing Horses With Food
The main way that you can heal worse in Minecraft is by feeding them food.
While in previous years, they would only eat apples or wheat, Mojang has introduced extra food items in recent years that you can feed to your horses.
A larger variety of food items that horses will now eat opens up the ability to treat your horse to special food items like golden apples or carrots.
Coincidentally, horses in real life also eat many of these foods, though obviously, they don’t eat golden foods.
(Image credit: Mojang).
You can feed a Minecraft horse the following items:
- Apples
- Hay Bales
- Golden Carrots
- Golden Apples
- Wheat
- Sugar
Now, each food item will heal your horse’s health for different amounts, with hay bales being the absolute best, at 20 health points healed per haybale.
Even though you can feed your horse the same food every single time, feeding them a different type of food from time to time can be a rewarding experience.
Not only does it make it a bit more realistic, but let’s be honest, no one can afford to be feeding a horse golden apples every time it gets hit by something.
The rest of the food items heal an injured horse for the following amounts:
- Sugar – 1 HP
- Wheat – 2 HP
- Apple – 3 HP
- Golden Carrot – 4 HP
- Golden Apple – 10 HP
If you want to treat your horse to something other than wheat or haybales, then golden apples are a great way to do so. However, remember that it does take eight gold ingots to make golden apples.
So, maybe you’ll want to feed them a golden carrot since that only takes eight gold nuggets. Luckily, there is another way to find golden apples in the wild: chest loot.
You can find chests containing them in various places around the Minecraft world.
Splashing Them With Potions
If you don’t want to feed your horses, you can also heal them via splash potions like a splash potion of healing or regeneration.
This content was first published on GameDaft.com
The splash potion of regeneration will give them some temporary health regeneration that can be perfect in some situations, like fighting large hordes of monsters.
(Image credit: Mojang).
Splash potions also tend to be a bit cheaper than feeding your horse golden apples, so they can be a great way to keep your horse in full health without worrying about if you have the right food item.
Breeding Horses and Healing
Part of keeping horses is to breed them, and if you have not already learned throughout your playthrough, you can not breed an animal till it has full health.
When checking horse health, I recommend feeding them wheat or some sugar. If hearts come off the animals, they are in love mode and ready to breed.
Then all you have to do is right-click on two horses with a valid food item, and voila, you now have a baby horse.
Check out this article on breeding and taming horses, donkeys, and mules in Minecraft.
While you can wait for it to grow up, the growth of baby horses can be sped up by feeding them.
(Image credit: Mojang).
You can increase their growth speed by right-clicking on them with any food item horses eat, though the best food items will obviously be golden apples and carrots.
On its own, though, the growth process will take around 5 minutes to complete fully. Unlike a wild horse, the baby horse will automatically be tamed when it grows into an adult horse.
Conclusion
Horses are great animals to keep on hand when playing Minecraft, and having some animal pens with several of them in there can ensure you always have a horse ready to go.
If you enjoyed this article, check out this illustrated guide on taming foxes in Minecraft.
Until next time, happy gaming!
FAQ
Can You Tame Zombie or Skeleton Horses?
Unfortunately, you can not tame zombie or skeleton horses in Minecraft. After they have spawned into the world, they will despawn after 15 minutes if you do not name-tag them.
So I’m afraid you cannot have a loyal skeleton horse companion, as they only serve as the skeletal steed of the Death Riders. A zombie horse also will not turn into a normal horse if you throw a splash potion of instant damage at it.
Do Horses Have an Inventory Like Donkeys?
No, horses do not have a second inventory like donkeys do. Their only inventory is a slot for the saddle and a slot for you to place horse armor in if you decide that your faithful buddy deserves some protection from the horrors of the Minecraft world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jan has played video games since the early 1980s. He loves getting immersed in video games as a way to take his mind off stuff when the outside world gets too scary. A lifelong gamer, the big interest led to a job as a lecturer on game sound at the University of Copenhagen and several written articles on video games for magazines.