Riding · Loot · 1.21

How to Get a Saddle

You will search a long time for a crafting recipe that does not exist. The saddle is pure loot, so here is every place it hides and every animal it lets you ride.

There is no saddle recipe. No combination of leather, iron or string will make one. Every saddle in the game is found, traded or dropped, never crafted, so do not waste materials trying.

Where to find one

Five reliable sources, from pot luck to buy-on-demand.

Loot chestsCommon

The main source. Dungeons, desert and jungle temples, nether fortresses, mineshafts, bastions, end cities and ruined portals all roll saddles.

FishingRare

A treasure catch. Rare on its own, but a rod with Luck of the Sea tilts the odds your way over a long session.

LeatherworkerReliable

A master-level Leatherworker villager will sell one saddle for roughly six emeralds. The only buy-on-demand source.

Piglin barterUncommon

Drop gold ingots near a piglin in the Nether. A saddle is one of the possible barter rewards, on a small chance each trade.

RavagerOn kill

A ravager, the bulldozer of raids, always drops a saddle when you kill it. Survive a raid and you are guaranteed one.

What you can ride

A saddle only fits five mobs. Each is steered a little differently.

Pig

Saddle a pig, then hold a carrot on a stick to steer it. Slow, but the most charming way to travel.

Horse, donkey or mule

Tame it first by climbing on until it stops bucking, then open its inventory and add the saddle to steer directly.

Strider

Saddle a strider to ride across lava, steering with a warped fungus on a stick. The only safe way across a lava sea.

Putting it on

For a horse, donkey or muletame it first, then open its inventory and drop the saddle into the slot. For a pig or strideruse the saddle on it directly, then hold the matching control stick, a carrot on a stick or warped fungus on a stick, to steer.

Quick answers

Can I craft a saddle?

No. There has never been a crafting recipe. You can only find one as loot, fish it up, trade for it, barter for it, or take one from a ravager.

What is the most reliable way to get one?

A master-level Leatherworker villager. Level one up and it will sell saddles for about six emeralds whenever you want.

Which mobs can wear a saddle?

Pigs, horses, donkeys, mules and striders. Most other animals cannot be saddled at all.

How do I steer a pig or strider?

Hold the matching control item: a carrot on a stick for pigs, a warped fungus on a stick for striders. Horses you steer directly.

Do I get the saddle back?

Yes. Open the animal's inventory, or shear-free just remove it, and the saddle returns to you undamaged. Saddles never wear out.

Where in chests should I look?

Nether fortresses, bastions and dungeons are among the best. Any structure chest can hold one, so loot everything.

Build a fishing rod to fish one up, look up the saddle, carrot on a stick and emerald in the items database, or read up on the mobs you can ride in the bestiary.

The item you cannot craft

There is no recipe, and there never was

Saddles come from chests, from fishing, from trading with a leatherworker and off ravagers, and no arrangement of leather makes one. That single fact is why horses are gated behind exploration rather than behind farming.

Trading is the only reliable supply

A leatherworker villager sells saddles at a fixed price, which turns an item you find by luck into one you can buy on demand. Setting up one villager for this is faster than opening a hundred dungeon chests, and it also scales when you want saddles for pigs, striders and a stable of horses.

Striders need one too

A strider is ridden with a saddle and steered with a warped fungus on a stick, so lava travel in the Nether costs you a saddle as well. Bring a spare on any Nether trip that involves a lava sea, because dying mid crossing loses the strider and the saddle together.