Compatibility
Minecraft: Java Edition
Platforms
Supported environments
Tags
Creators
Details
Icy's Better Horses 2.0
⚠️ Required Dependencies: GeckoLib and Modonomicon (Patchouli for Minecraft 1.20.1).
A complete overhaul of horse progression, travel, breeding, ownership, and mounted gameplay for Minecraft.
Icy's Better Horses turns horses from disposable transport into long-term companions that you can bond with!
Featuring five horse classes, fifteen real breeds, unique abilities, genetics, carts, mounted combat, and tons of quality-of-life improvements, the mod makes traveling by horse a much more immersive experience.
Only interested in the fancy models and animations? Check out Icy's Horse Breeds instead!
What's New in 2.0.0?
Five Horse Classes
Every horse now belongs to one of five classes, which determine:
- Its base speed, health, and jump ranges.
- Class-specific perks shared by every breed in that class.
- Its effectiveness in mounted combat.
Horses have also been completely rebuilt with new models, coat textures, and custom animations, including animations repurposed from FreshLX's Fresh Animations alongside our own creations!
Fifteen Breeds, Fifteen Unique Abilities
Each breed has its own special ability, which improves at Bond Level 40 and again at Bond Level 100.
Some examples:
- Clydesdale: Barding grants 25% more armor, provides Resistance to its rider, and can even swat arrows out of the air!
- Percheron: Ignores slowdown from soul sand, cobwebs, sweet berries, and honey blocks. Its charge also becomes more dangerous as it builds momentum.
- Icelandic: Its thick coat prevents freezing and protects against most harmful potion effects.
- Mustang: Highlights nearby hostile mobs, regenerates health without food, and eventually heals its rider too!
- Morgan: Bonds twice as fast as other horses.
And ten more! Breeds like the Arabian, Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Friesian, Andalusian, Haflinger, and American Paint all have their own unique niches.
Mounted Combat
Horses are no longer helpless transportation!
- Charging: Gallop at full speed to build momentum and fill your charge meter beside the hotbar.
- Class-based damage: War horses deal up to 1.5× charge damage, while Race horses deal as little as 0.6×.
- Kicking: Horses can kick enemies behind them.
- Defending owners: Horses with Bond 40 or higher will defend their owners when attacked by another player.
- Spooking: Horses can panic and throw their riders during combat. Higher bonds reduce the chance, while War horses never spook!
Don't want mounted combat? Disable the entire system with one config switch.
Four Riding Gaits
Use the walk-cycle key to switch between four movement speeds:
| Gait | Speed |
|---|---|
| Walk | ~2 blocks/s |
| Trot | ~4.4 blocks/s |
| Canter | ~6.8 blocks/s |
| Gallop | Horse's maximum speed |
Horse Ownership & Bonding
Your Horse, Your Companion
Taming a horse makes it permanently yours, activating the mod's ownership and bonding systems.
Every owned horse has a persistent Bond stat from 0 to 100.
As your bond increases:
- Every 20 Bond grants +15% speed and jump.
- Maximum Bond provides +75% speed and jump.
- Bond 40 unlocks the first breed ability upgrade.
- Bond 100 unlocks the final breed ability upgrade.
These values can be configured in-game.
Whistling & Horse Commands
Your active horse will respond to your whistle from anywhere!
- Within 32 blocks: Your horse walks toward you.
- Beyond 32 blocks: Your horse teleports to you.
- During combat: Whistling makes your horse disengage and return to safety.
- While staying: Whistling automatically clears the Stay command.
You can also open a radial command menu on any horse you own:
- Follow
- Stay
- Wander
- Set Home
- Return Home
Ownership Protection
Nobody steals your horse!
- Non-owners attempting to mount as the primary rider are bucked off.
- Other players cannot access your horse's equipment or remove its saddle.
- Other players can ride as passengers while you're in the saddle.
- Trusted players can be granted access.
Servers with shared stables can disable these restrictions.
Horse Information Screen
Get a detailed profile of your horse, including:
- Gender
- Breed
- Coat
- Bond
- Speed
- Jump
- Health
Each stat has an animated bar and an exact numerical value.
The bars scale toward the mod's maximum values:
| Stat | Maximum |
|---|---|
| Speed | 26.25 blocks/s |
| Jump | 9.71 blocks |
| Health | 50 HP |
A shorter bar indicates room for improvement through bonding or selective breeding.
Inspecting Wild Horses
Hold an Upgraded Saddle and look at any horse to display its stats above your hotbar.
This lets you inspect horses before taming them and choose the best one!
Genetics & Breeding
Every horse carries persistent genetics that survive saving, syncing, and breeding.
The breeding system includes:
- Gender-gated breeding
- 15 real horse breeds
- Biome-specific spawning
- Mixed breeds
- Stat inheritance
- Coat inheritance
Most of these systems are configurable.
Existing horses from older worlds are automatically assigned a breed based on their current biome.
For the full breed list, coat variations, and spawning biomes, check the in-game Stable Handbook or visit the official wiki.
Travel & Quality-of-Life Features
Better Horses introduces a wide range of improvements to mounted travel.
Riding Controls
- Auto-Ride: Double-tap W to keep moving automatically while steering with your mouse. Press any movement key to cancel.
- Free Look: Mounting no longer snaps your camera. While stationary, you can look up to 90° around before your horse turns to follow.
- Rear on Command: Make your horse rear whenever you want.
Movement Improvements
- Horse Transparency: Look downward while riding and your horse fades to near-invisible, allowing you to see the terrain beneath you. Configurable.
- Improved Swimming: Horses float instead of sinking and swim significantly faster.
- Leaf Collision: Ride through leaves without getting stuck.
- Raised Step Height: Horses step over small elevation changes instead of constantly jumping.
- Mounted Mining: Mine most blocks at the same speed as when standing on foot.
Multiple Riders
Horses can now carry passengers!
- Draft horses: Two riders and a chest simultaneously.
- Other horses: Either two riders or one rider and a chest.
Items & Guidebook
A complete in-game guidebook explains every system, breed, ability, and item.
- Minecraft 1.21.1+: Modonomicon
- Minecraft 1.20.1: Patchouli
The guidebook includes live 3D previews of every horse coat and cart.
New items include:
- Carts (both sizes)
- Glidewing Harness
- Canisters
- Horse Shoe
- Medkits
And more!
Configuration
Better Horses includes a JSON configuration file:
config/icys-better-horses.json
Configurable Features
The mod includes ten feature toggles:
- Harness
- Medkit
- Hooves
- Owner-only riding
- Multi-riding
- Mounted combat
- Horse transparency
- Gender-gated breeding
- Horse PvP
- Cart pickup
Safe Feature Disabling
Disabling an item does not remove it from the game.
Instead, it enters dummy mode:
- Remains craftable
- Remains equippable
- Still renders normally
- Becomes functionally inactive
This allows server owners to disable unwanted features without breaking existing worlds or deleting players' items.
Install Cloth Config (and Mod Menu on Fabric) to edit settings in-game, including all seven keybinds.
Older versions of Better Horses are available from Minecraft 1.20.1 through 26.2, although not every version is actively maintained.
Better Horses 2.0 — Supported Versions
| Mod Loader | Minecraft Versions |
|---|---|
| Fabric | 26.2, 26.1.2 |
| NeoForge | 26.1.2, 1.21.1 |
| Forge | 1.20.1 |
Planned Ports
- Fabric 1.21.1
- Fabric 1.21.11
- Fabric 1.20.1
Do I need this mod on the server?
Yes. Better Horses adds entities, items, and world data, so it must be installed on both the client and server.
Where was AI used in this mod?
AI was only used to help fix bugs that I couldn't resolve myself and to assist with porting the mod to other Minecraft versions.
The codebase and architecture are entirely my own.
All assets, including models, textures, icons, and UI, were handmade by talented artists credited below. Please check out their work!
Can I include Better Horses in my modpack?
Yes! Feel free to include it in your modpacks.
Can I repost the mod to another website?
No. Redistribution and reposting to other websites are not permitted.
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed!
- goozt: Horse cart animations.
- funado: Cart textures and most adult horse models and textures.
- mrsketchystuff: UI backgrounds and textures for most items.
- FreshLX: Permission to repurpose animations from Fresh Animations.
If you enjoy Better Horses and want to support future updates, consider supporting me!
