Minecraft has got one thing wrong about horses, and it has annoyed some fans

There's a lot to love about Minecraft's horse mobs; they're excellent methods of transportation, can be equipped with armor to improve their survivability, and can even be bred to improve their offspring's speed. However, one core aspect of how horses behave in-game has confused or annoyed some players. Specifically, the fact that in-game horses are incapable of swimming.

In the real world, horses are skillful swimmers, and their immense lungs allow them to float for extended periods as well. However, Minecraft's horses are not quite so lucky, being incapable of swimming in most water while being ridden by players. Once a horse reaches water depth deeper than two blocks, players are instantly dismounted, and the horse is left floating in place and moving very slowly in the process.

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Minecraft fans share confusion as to why in-game horses can't swim

In a recent post on X, popular Minecraft YouTuber Ibxtoycat shared a search result affirming that horses in our world are great swimmers and asking why the sandbox game would "lie" and not offer in-game horses the ability to swim. Considering that Mojang has striven for realism with its in-game animals (the revision of armadillo eye placement being one example), horses not swimming is a sizable omission.

While it's true that riding a horse would weigh it down in the water in the real world and in Minecraft, that doesn't mean horses shouldn't be able to swim in-game when not being ridden. Several fans shared their confusion about this horse behavior, remarking that Mojang made a very strange decision if this was intentional. Others asked them to make up for it if the lack of swimming was accidental.

The lack of a swimming capability for horses in Minecraft is particularly strange, considering Mojang's intent to keep animal mobs realistic. Fireflies, once considered a potential mob for The Wild Update, were eventually removed since they're toxic to frogs, and it wouldn't make sense for frog mobs to eat them. So why shouldn't horses swim like they do in real life?

As far as riding horses in water goes, the lone option players have is Minecraft's skeleton horses. While these mobs also can't swim, they can at least sink to the bottom of a body of water and still be ridden without dismounting the player. Still, as one player pointed out, the fact that living horses can't swim chafes against the notion that Mojang considers everything before making an in-game addition.

Even though some Minecraft fans were annoyed at the lack of swimming from horses, others believe that the decision was made to maintain gameplay balance. If horses could easily be used to ride over the water, then boats might become less useful in comparison. This would be an especially noticeable discrepancy depending on how much water would slow down a swimming horse in the game.

Still, given the lengths that Mojang goes to make their game's animals realistic, this particular omission is a strange one. Did Mojang make the decision voluntarily to ensure game balance and encourage boat travel, or did it simply overlook the fact that horses can swim during the mob's development? There doesn't appear to be a straightforward answer on the subject.

Could it be time for Mojang to set things right and give horses the ability to swim in a future update? Possibly, but considering that the trusted steeds have gone on this long without the ability to swim, a change certainly isn't guaranteed. For now, it seems Minecraft players will have to be content with breeding the fastest horse they can and galloping across the land.