Guide: Horses (and why they are totally OP)

Hello all-

I want to talk about the most OP yet underutilized resource on survival PVP: Horses. You may have seen me in the past on MCPVP and I am almost invariably on a horse. The following is a guide to using horses on a survival server-

Benefits:

Using horses have many benefits, including:

• The ability to travel far distances without having to worry about hunger. (Your hunger does not get depleted while on a horse).
• Horses are even faster than flying in creative or using speed pots. This extra speed allows you to escape mobs, pursue or escape enemies, and explore the map far faster.
• Horses also absorb damage for you, such as fall damage, enemy damage, and mob damage. A well armored horse can help you survive a fall that would easily kill a player.
• Horses can walk over 1-block step-ups, and (usually) can jump over 2 block step-ups. This is handy when exploring the world or otherwise running around.

Alright, now that you understand the benefits of horses, lets talk about how to use them.​

Armor and Saddles:

Armor and Saddles can be found in pregenerated chests in the nether or overworld (they cannot be crafted). Thankfully they are also a pretty common item in Economy, so a few gold can get you set up with this equipment.

Saddles can also be found from fishing, and trading with villagers (if you want to get ripped off!). A Saddle is necessary to ride a horse, and does not lose durability with use.

There are three levels of horse armor, and from weakest to strongest they are Iron, Gold, and Diamond. Unlike regular armor, they also do not lose durability and if your horse dies you can usually get the armor back. I recommend using the highest level of armor available at all times.​

Taming (requires a saddle):

Horses are tamed by right clicking on a wild horse while holding nothing in your hand. The horse will toss you around for a while, and you may need to get on several times, but eventually it will be tamed and will stand still. At this point, you can right click on the horse and add the saddle. Also, if you have armor (highly recommended), add it at this point.​

Healing (Requires wheat):

As you use a horse, invariably it will take damage. They do regenerate (although painfully slowly), but you can 'repair' them instantly by right clicking on them with wheat (And when they are healed you'll end up hopping back on them). It's 1 wheat per half a heart of damage (or so) but this is far more effective than waiting for the regeneration.​

Leads:

Leads (sometimes called leashes) are an essential tool for controlling horses. A lead can be crafted with 4 string and a slime ball as below (S=String, B=Ball, X=Empty)

SSX
SBX
XXS

With a lead you can take a horse across water and traverse the map.​

Crossing shallow water/rivers:

Horses can tread water up to 2 blocks tall without throwing off the rider. (However, 2 block tall water prevents the horse from breathing so if you cross a lot of it, jump once in a while or hop off the horse). It is slow to walk in water, but makes sense if you are walking across a small river.​

Crossing deep rivers (Requires a lead):

Crossing deep rivers (or short stretches of deep water) can be best accomplished by a lead. The way to do this is to hop off the horse at the water's edge, right click the horse with a lead, and swim across. Horses can also be pushed across deep water without a lead (although in practice this is a pain to do). Once you have crossed, right click to remove the lead and don't forget to pick it up.​

Crossing oceans (Requires a lead and a boat):

Crossing oceans is the same idea as crossing rivers, with the exception that you will hop in a boat. So you will connect the lead to the horse, place a boat, hop in the boat and drag the horse behind you. (This does not hurt the horse, but it looks like it's water-skiing which is funnier than hell to see). When you get to the opposite shore, just hop out of the boat, break/retrieve the boat, bring the horse to shore and unleash it.

The ability to bring horses across oceans definitely makes them worthwhile to get and use for survival. I have not seen this feature documented anywhere else and found it by accident myself.​

Status Effects:

Horses can take on status effects, like speed and regeneration. To do this, craft a spash potion of your choice and toss it at a horse. (I've never had to do this since horses are OP as is, but to each his own).​

Anyway, hope you enjoy the art of being a PVP horseman and see you on the server!

 

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