Getting a fast horse in Minecraft can significantly improve your travel time across your world, whether you're exploring vast landscapes or quickly transporting goods. This guide will walk you through the process, covering everything from finding the right horse to breeding for optimal speed.
What Makes a Horse Fast in Minecraft?
Before we dive into how to get a fast horse, let's understand what determines its speed. A horse's speed is determined by two key factors: its base speed and its jump height. While jump height is important for navigating obstacles, it's the base speed that directly impacts how quickly your horse travels. A horse's base speed is represented by a hidden statistic, and you can only see its effects.
How to Find a Fast Horse in Minecraft
The most straightforward (but time-consuming) method is to simply explore and find a horse with naturally high speed. This involves:
- Locating Horses: Horses spawn naturally in plains, savannas, and forest biomes. The more you explore these areas, the greater your chances of finding multiple horses to choose from.
- Testing Horse Speed: Once you find a horse, right-click to mount it. You won't see a numerical speed value, but you can visually assess its speed by riding it over a known distance. Compare the time it takes to travel that distance against other horses. The faster ones will clearly pull ahead.
Pro Tip: Horses with a darker coat color tend to have slightly better stats, though this isn't a guaranteed indicator of speed.
Can You Identify a Fast Horse Before Taming?
Unfortunately, you cannot definitively identify a horse's speed before taming it in Minecraft. There is no visual cue or pre-taming indicator to reveal a horse's base speed. This means trying out different horses is your best bet to find a naturally fast one.
Breeding Horses for Optimal Speed
Breeding horses is a more reliable way to obtain a fast horse. This method involves:
- Finding Two Horses: You'll need two tamed horses, preferably ones that already exhibit decent speed. Remember, even if their speed isn't exceptional, their offspring has a chance to inherit superior stats.
- Feeding the Horses Golden Apples or Golden Carrots: These enchanted foods are needed to initiate breeding. You can craft golden carrots by combining carrots and gold ingots. Golden apples require apples and gold ingots.
- Waiting for a Baby Horse (Foal): Once fed, the adult horses will produce a foal. This foal inherits genetic traits from its parents, including speed.
- Repeat the Process: You can continue breeding horses with desirable traits—including speed—to eventually create one with exceptionally high speed. Patience is key, and you may need to repeat the breeding process several times to get the result you desire.
How to Increase a Horse's Speed After Taming
After taming a horse, you can use enchanted golden apples and golden carrots to further increase its speed. However, this method does not guarantee a significant increase, and it's generally more effective to focus on breeding for the best results.
What are the Best Horse Armor Enchantments?
While horse armor doesn't directly impact base speed, it increases a horse's health and reduces damage taken during travel, allowing your horse to survive longer journeys.
Conclusion
Getting a fast horse in Minecraft involves a combination of exploration, testing, and strategic breeding. While finding a naturally fast horse requires patience, breeding offers a more reliable path to acquiring the steed of your dreams. Remember to test various horses and breed them strategically to increase your chances of acquiring a truly impressive mount!