What do horses eat in Minecraft 1.19 update?

Horses have been a part of Minecraft for years and are quite unique among animal mobs in the game.

In addition to being rideable, these creatures have a large number of food items they can consume.

Food items in Minecraft perform different functions. Some can heal a tamed horse, while others can speed up the growth of a baby horse. Certain food items can also improve a horse's temper, which can assist players in taming it.

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Horses in Minecraft 1.19 can eat six different food items

A player feeds a horse a golden apple (Image via Mojang)

Overall, horses can eat six different food items in Minecraft. Five of these items can be fed to the horse by hand. The other item comes in block form, and the horse can eat from it as much as it likes.

Horses can eat sugar, wheat, apples, golden carrots, golden apples and hay bale blocks in the game. Depending on the item and what players are aiming to do for their horse, some foods are preferred over others. Some items are better for healing when a horse has taken damage, while others place horses into Love Mode for breeding purposes.

Below, Minecraft players can find a breakdown of what each food item can do for a given horse.

Each horse food type in Minecraft and their effects

• Sugar - Heals one point of health. Speeds growth by 30 seconds. Increases temper by three.
• Wheat - Heals two points of health. Speeds growth by 20 seconds. Increases temper by three.
• Apples - Heals three points of health. Speeds growth by one minute. Increases temper by three.
• Golden Carrots - Heals four points of health. Speeds growth by one minute. Increases temper by five. Activates Love Mode in a tamed horse.
• Golden Apples/Enchanted Golden Apples - Heals ten points of health. Speeds growth by four minutes. Increases temper by ten. Activates Love Mode in tamed horses.
• Hay Bales - Heals 20 points of health. Speeds growth by three minutes. Cannot be fed to adult horses that have not been tamed.

In order to feed a horse, players will need to place the necessary food item in their hands and approach the mob. They can either right-click or press the 'Use Item' button to feed the horse.

An exception to this approach is hay bales, which must be placed on the ground near the horse. The mob will then approach the block and eat from it at will.

One final exception is zombie and skeleton horses. While these mobs function almost identically to horses, they cannot be fed under any circumstances. This likely has to do with the fact that they're undead mobs and don't gain anything from eating ordinary food. This makes healing undead horses difficult.

In this light, players with zombie or skeletal horses will want to keep their mounts out of danger as much as possible.

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer