Mob Menagerie: Horse

Horses like to hang out in plains and savannas, where there’s plenty of space to spot and flee from predators. They’re social creatures by nature – you’ll usually find them in a small herd that encompasses two to six individuals, a few of which will often be young foals. Horses can also often be found in villages. 

You’ll quickly notice that horses come in many different combinations of colour and marking. There are 35 combinations in all – colours include white, creamy, chestnut, brown, dark brown, gray and black, while possible markings include white stockings, a white field, white spots, and black dots. Some horses have no markings at all.

In the real world, humans have been riding horses for about 6,000 years, and the first rider most likely lived somewhere in central Asia. The earliest archaeological evidence for horse riding comes from sites in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but within a couple of thousand years, the practice seems to have become widespread across the continent.

Today, we don’t ride horses as much as we used to before cars were invented. Nonetheless, there are still estimated to be at least 60 million horses in the world today, most of which are in the Americas. They’re used in sports, agriculture, policing, entertainment, and medicine, among other areas. In 2004, an Animal Planet poll of 50,000 people in 73 countries voted horses as their fourth favorite animal – beaten only by tigers, dogs, and dolphins (I voted for silverfish, but they didn’t place). 

Have you successfully harnessed a horse in Minecraft? If not, then get to it – it’s the game’s mane attraction, after all!