Mod
Icy's Better Horses
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Better Horses transforms vanilla horses into smarter, faster, and upgradeable companions.
Forge is a popular mod loader for versions 1.1+ of Minecraft.
Neoforge is a fork of the Minecraft Forge available for versions 1.20.1+ of Minecraft. Many Forge mods are compatible with Neoforge and vice versa.
Fabric is a mod loader for versions 1.14+ of Minecraft, particularly popular for client side and optimization mods.
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Description
[!IMPORTANT] GECKOLIB IS REQUIRED DEPENDENCY FOR THIS MOD.
Support the project on Patreon and join the Discord Community to help make Better Horses even better.
Icy’s Better Horses
A complete overhaul of horse progression, travel, breeding, ownership, and mounted gameplay for Minecraft.
Icy’s Better Horses transforms horses from disposable transport into true long-term companions. The mod expands nearly every part of vanilla horse gameplay: movement, breeding, genetics, ownership, bonding, utility equipment, mounted controls, traversal, and multiplayer riding.
Ownership & Horse Commands
Once a horse is fully tamed, it becomes permanently tied to its rider through an ownership system.
Owned horses gain access to advanced control mechanics designed to make them feel reliable and persistent instead of temporary.
Horse Whistle
Press P to whistle for your horse.
Your owned horse will respond and return to you, even at range.
The whistle system is multiplayer-safe and correctly tied to the owner’s UUID.
Pressing the whistle key also clears previous command states like Stay, returning the horse to normal follow behavior.
Radial Command Wheel
Open the command wheel with: R (can be changed in configs!)
Available commands:
- Follow — horse follows the player
- Stay — horse remains in place
- Return Home — horse returns to its assigned home position
- Set Home — assigns a new home location
- Wander — wander in a 32x32 radius
Bonding System
Every horse now has a persistent Bond stat ranging from:
0 → 100
Bond represents trust, training, and familiarity between rider and horse.
As bond increases, the horse gains measurable stat bonuses.
Bond Bonuses
Every 20 bond levels improves:
- Movement speed
- Jump height
At maximum bond, horses can significantly outperform vanilla movement values while still remaining balanced within hard stat ceilings.
Increasing Bond
Name Tag
Using a Name Tag on a horse grants:
+10 Bond
Golden Apples
Feeding Golden Apples grants:
+2 Bond
Horse Information Screen
While mounted, pressing P now opens a full horse profile screen.
If the player is not mounted, the whistle still activates normally.
The info screen displays:
- Gender
- Breed
- Coat
- Bond level
- Movement speed
- Jump height
- Health
All stats are shown with progress bars and exact values.
Stat Displays
Speed
Displayed in:
blocks per second
Maximum attainable bonded speed:
25.52 blk/s
Jump Height
Displayed in:
blocks
Maximum attainable jump:
9.50 blk
Health
Displayed in:
HP
Maximum health:
30 HP
Horse Genetics & Breeding
The breeding system has been completely rebuilt around persistent genetic traits.
Every horse now stores:
- Gender
- Breed
- Mixed-breed state
These values persist through saves, multiplayer syncing, and breeding.
Gender System
Every horse now has a biological gender:
- Male
- Female
This includes:
- Horses
- Donkeys
- Mules
Gender is synced, saved to NBT, and visible through the info UI and HUD systems.
Gender-Gated Breeding
Two horses of the same gender cannot breed.
Attempting to breed incompatible horses will:
- Consume the Golden Apple
- Reset love mode
- Notify the player with a chat message
This system applies specifically to horse-type entities and leaves vanilla animal breeding untouched.
Horse Breeds
The mod introduces 15 persistent horse breeds, each with biome spawning rules and breed-specific coat pools.
Breeds include:
- Thoroughbred
- Arabian
- Quarter Horse
- Friesian
- Andalusian
- Percheron
- Clydesdale
- Shire
- Belgian
- Icelandic
- Mustang
- Haflinger
- Morgan
- American Paint
- Appaloosa
Donkeys, mules, skeleton horses, and zombie horses use species placeholders instead of true breed types.
Mixed Breeds
Foals born from two different breeds inherit:
- One parent breed at random
- A persistent
(mix)flag
Mixed-breed horses are visibly marked in the UI.
Breed-Based Coat System
Breeds are now tied directly to realistic coat pools.
Every breed only spawns with specific vanilla coat + markings combinations.
Examples:
Friesian
- Black only
Arabian
- Gray
- White
- Chestnut
- Brown
- Black
Clydesdale
- Brown + White Field
- Black + White Field
- Dark Brown + White Field
- Chestnut + White Field
Appaloosa
- White + Black Dots
- Gray + Black Dots
- Chestnut + White Dots
- Brown + White Dots
- Black + White Dots
- Dark Brown + White Dots
Existing horses from older worlds retain their current appearance and automatically receive an inferred breed.
Biome-Locked Breeds
Wild horses now spawn according to biome regions.
Entire natural spawn groups share the same breed for more believable herds.
Examples:
Arabian
Found in:
- Deserts
- Badlands
- Savannas
Icelandic
Found in:
- Snowy Plains
- Frozen Peaks
- Ice Spikes
- Jagged Peaks
Friesian
Found in:
- Dark Forests
- Taiga variants
- Old Growth forests
Mustang
Found in:
- Plains
- Badlands
- Windswept terrain
This creates region-specific horse populations across the world.
Inherited Stats
Foals inherit stats from their parents through a controlled inheritance system.
Inherited stats include:
- Health
- Speed
- Jump strength
The child receives:
max(parent stats) + randomized bonus
Values are capped at the mod’s maximum attainable limits, preventing infinite breeding escalation.
Travel & Mounted Gameplay Improvements
Vanilla horse travel has been heavily redesigned to remove friction and terrain frustration.
Water Traversal
Horses:
- No longer sink in water
- Move far faster across rivers and oceans
Mounted travel no longer completely stops at every shoreline.
Forest Traversal
While mounted:
- Leaves become passable
- Dense forests are far easier to navigate
This prevents horses from constantly snagging on leaf blocks.
Auto-Ride System
Double-tap:
W
to enable Auto-Ride.
While active:
- The horse automatically continues forward
- Steering is controlled with the mouse
- Continuous WASD input is unnecessary
Pressing any movement key disables Auto-Ride.
Improved Mounted Controls
Mounted movement has been reworked for smoother handling.
Changes include:
- Increased horse step height to 1.1 so horses can step up from path blocks
- Independent camera movement while stationary
- Up to 90° free-look before the horse turns
- Improved downward visibility while riding, making the horse transluscent
- Lowered and repositioned horse head while mounted
Mounted mining speed penalties were also drastically reduced.
Multiplayer Riding
Two players can ride the same horse simultaneously.
Useful for:
- Multiplayer exploration
- Transporting teammates
- Cooperative travel
Upgraded Saddle
The Upgraded Saddle expands horse utility far beyond vanilla functionality.
Features include:
- 5 additional equipment slots
- Horse inventory expansion
- Cosmetic and utility customization
Ender Chest Support
Placing an Ender Chest into the upgraded saddle grants access to the player’s global Ender Chest inventory directly from the horse.
Horse Stats HUD
Holding an upgraded saddle while looking at a horse displays an in-world HUD:
- Gender
- Breed
- Speed
- Jump height
Horse Equipment
Horse Hooves
Craftable horse hooves improve environmental traversal.
Effects:
- Prevent sinking in powdered snow
- Improve terrain stability
- Reduce fall damage
Horse hooves can also receive:
Frost Walker
At high movement speeds, ice generation was specifically optimized to avoid performance problems.
Stabilizer
The Stabilizer is advanced survival equipment for dangerous terrain.
During major falls:
- Steam jets activate
- Mechanical wings deploy
- Fall damage is heavily reduced or fully negated
Designed for mountain travel and cliff traversal.
Medkit
The Horse Medkit automatically activates when horse health drops below 50%.
Applies:
- Regeneration
- Instant Health
- Resistance
This provides emergency survivability during combat or accidents.
Hitch Post
The Hitch Post allows owned horses to be tethered to a fixed location.
Restrictions:
- Only works on owned horses
- Cannot tether random wild horses
Horse Exclusivity System
Horses can reject unauthorized riders.
If a non-owner attempts to control the horse:
- The rider may be bucked off
- Owners retain riding priority
This prevents accidental horse theft in multiplayer environments.
Configuration System
The mod includes a configurable JSON file:
betterhorses-common.json
Configurable systems include:
- Stabilizers
- Medkits
- Hitch Posts
- Horse Hooves
- Horse Exclusivity
- Multiplayer Riding
Items can also be placed into dummy mode, allowing them to remain as decorative models without gameplay functionality.
Technical Systems
The mod adds:
-
Persistent NBT-backed horse data
-
Synced multiplayer horse traits
-
Breed-based spawning
-
Spawn-group inheritance
-
Coat restriction systems
-
Advanced breeding inheritance
-
Custom GUI systems
-
Server/client mixins
-
Translation support for:
- breeds
- genders
- coats
- UI labels
- HUD text
- breeding messages
Developer Notes
Icy’s Better Horses is one of my first large-scale modding projects, and the mod continues to evolve with every update. Some models and textures are still being improved as I continue learning 3D modeling and animation workflows. Community feedback, testing, suggestions, and contributions are always welcome.
[!IMPORTANT] GECKOLIB IS REQUIRED DEPENDENCY FOR THIS MOD.
Support the project on Patreon and join the Discord Community to help make Better Horses even better.
Icy’s Better Horses
A complete overhaul of horse progression, travel, breeding, ownership, and mounted gameplay for Minecraft.
Icy’s Better Horses transforms horses from disposable transport into true long-term companions. The mod expands nearly every part of vanilla horse gameplay: movement, breeding, genetics, ownership, bonding, utility equipment, mounted controls, traversal, and multiplayer riding.
Ownership & Horse Commands
Once a horse is fully tamed, it becomes permanently tied to its rider through an ownership system.
Owned horses gain access to advanced control mechanics designed to make them feel reliable and persistent instead of temporary.
Horse Whistle
Press P to whistle for your horse.
Your owned horse will respond and return to you, even at range.
The whistle system is multiplayer-safe and correctly tied to the owner’s UUID.
Pressing the whistle key also clears previous command states like Stay, returning the horse to normal follow behavior.
Radial Command Wheel
Open the command wheel with: R (can be changed in configs!)
Available commands:
- Follow — horse follows the player
- Stay — horse remains in place
- Return Home — horse returns to its assigned home position
- Set Home — assigns a new home location
- Wander — wander in a 32x32 radius
Bonding System
Every horse now has a persistent Bond stat ranging from:
0 → 100
Bond represents trust, training, and familiarity between rider and horse.
As bond increases, the horse gains measurable stat bonuses.
Bond Bonuses
Every 20 bond levels improves:
- Movement speed
- Jump height
At maximum bond, horses can significantly outperform vanilla movement values while still remaining balanced within hard stat ceilings.
Increasing Bond
Name Tag
Using a Name Tag on a horse grants:
+10 Bond
Golden Apples
Feeding Golden Apples grants:
+2 Bond
Horse Information Screen
While mounted, pressing P now opens a full horse profile screen.
If the player is not mounted, the whistle still activates normally.
The info screen displays:
- Gender
- Breed
- Coat
- Bond level
- Movement speed
- Jump height
- Health
All stats are shown with progress bars and exact values.
Stat Displays
Speed
Displayed in:
blocks per second
Maximum attainable bonded speed:
25.52 blk/s
Jump Height
Displayed in:
blocks
Maximum attainable jump:
9.50 blk
Health
Displayed in:
HP
Maximum health:
30 HP
Horse Genetics & Breeding
The breeding system has been completely rebuilt around persistent genetic traits.
Every horse now stores:
- Gender
- Breed
- Mixed-breed state
These values persist through saves, multiplayer syncing, and breeding.
Gender System
Every horse now has a biological gender:
- Male
- Female
This includes:
- Horses
- Donkeys
- Mules
Gender is synced, saved to NBT, and visible through the info UI and HUD systems.
Gender-Gated Breeding
Two horses of the same gender cannot breed.
Attempting to breed incompatible horses will:
- Consume the Golden Apple
- Reset love mode
- Notify the player with a chat message
This system applies specifically to horse-type entities and leaves vanilla animal breeding untouched.
Horse Breeds
The mod introduces 15 persistent horse breeds, each with biome spawning rules and breed-specific coat pools.
Breeds include:
- Thoroughbred
- Arabian
- Quarter Horse
- Friesian
- Andalusian
- Percheron
- Clydesdale
- Shire
- Belgian
- Icelandic
- Mustang
- Haflinger
- Morgan
- American Paint
- Appaloosa
Donkeys, mules, skeleton horses, and zombie horses use species placeholders instead of true breed types.
Mixed Breeds
Foals born from two different breeds inherit:
- One parent breed at random
- A persistent
(mix)flag
Mixed-breed horses are visibly marked in the UI.
Breed-Based Coat System
Breeds are now tied directly to realistic coat pools.
Every breed only spawns with specific vanilla coat + markings combinations.
Examples:
Friesian
- Black only
Arabian
- Gray
- White
- Chestnut
- Brown
- Black
Clydesdale
- Brown + White Field
- Black + White Field
- Dark Brown + White Field
- Chestnut + White Field
Appaloosa
- White + Black Dots
- Gray + Black Dots
- Chestnut + White Dots
- Brown + White Dots
- Black + White Dots
- Dark Brown + White Dots
Existing horses from older worlds retain their current appearance and automatically receive an inferred breed.
Biome-Locked Breeds
Wild horses now spawn according to biome regions.
Entire natural spawn groups share the same breed for more believable herds.
Examples:
Arabian
Found in:
- Deserts
- Badlands
- Savannas
Icelandic
Found in:
- Snowy Plains
- Frozen Peaks
- Ice Spikes
- Jagged Peaks
Friesian
Found in:
- Dark Forests
- Taiga variants
- Old Growth forests
Mustang
Found in:
- Plains
- Badlands
- Windswept terrain
This creates region-specific horse populations across the world.
Inherited Stats
Foals inherit stats from their parents through a controlled inheritance system.
Inherited stats include:
- Health
- Speed
- Jump strength
The child receives:
max(parent stats) + randomized bonus
Values are capped at the mod’s maximum attainable limits, preventing infinite breeding escalation.
Travel & Mounted Gameplay Improvements
Vanilla horse travel has been heavily redesigned to remove friction and terrain frustration.
Water Traversal
Horses:
- No longer sink in water
- Move far faster across rivers and oceans
Mounted travel no longer completely stops at every shoreline.
Forest Traversal
While mounted:
- Leaves become passable
- Dense forests are far easier to navigate
This prevents horses from constantly snagging on leaf blocks.
Auto-Ride System
Double-tap:
W
to enable Auto-Ride.
While active:
- The horse automatically continues forward
- Steering is controlled with the mouse
- Continuous WASD input is unnecessary
Pressing any movement key disables Auto-Ride.
Improved Mounted Controls
Mounted movement has been reworked for smoother handling.
Changes include:
- Increased horse step height to 1.1 so horses can step up from path blocks
- Independent camera movement while stationary
- Up to 90° free-look before the horse turns
- Improved downward visibility while riding, making the horse transluscent
- Lowered and repositioned horse head while mounted
Mounted mining speed penalties were also drastically reduced.
Multiplayer Riding
Two players can ride the same horse simultaneously.
Useful for:
- Multiplayer exploration
- Transporting teammates
- Cooperative travel
Upgraded Saddle
The Upgraded Saddle expands horse utility far beyond vanilla functionality.
Features include:
- 5 additional equipment slots
- Horse inventory expansion
- Cosmetic and utility customization
Ender Chest Support
Placing an Ender Chest into the upgraded saddle grants access to the player’s global Ender Chest inventory directly from the horse.
Horse Stats HUD
Holding an upgraded saddle while looking at a horse displays an in-world HUD:
- Gender
- Breed
- Speed
- Jump height
Horse Equipment
Horse Hooves
Craftable horse hooves improve environmental traversal.
Effects:
- Prevent sinking in powdered snow
- Improve terrain stability
- Reduce fall damage
Horse hooves can also receive:
Frost Walker
At high movement speeds, ice generation was specifically optimized to avoid performance problems.
Stabilizer
The Stabilizer is advanced survival equipment for dangerous terrain.
During major falls:
- Steam jets activate
- Mechanical wings deploy
- Fall damage is heavily reduced or fully negated
Designed for mountain travel and cliff traversal.
Medkit
The Horse Medkit automatically activates when horse health drops below 50%.
Applies:
- Regeneration
- Instant Health
- Resistance
This provides emergency survivability during combat or accidents.
Hitch Post
The Hitch Post allows owned horses to be tethered to a fixed location.
Restrictions:
- Only works on owned horses
- Cannot tether random wild horses
Horse Exclusivity System
Horses can reject unauthorized riders.
If a non-owner attempts to control the horse:
- The rider may be bucked off
- Owners retain riding priority
This prevents accidental horse theft in multiplayer environments.
Configuration System
The mod includes a configurable JSON file:
betterhorses-common.json
Configurable systems include:
- Stabilizers
- Medkits
- Hitch Posts
- Horse Hooves
- Horse Exclusivity
- Multiplayer Riding
Items can also be placed into dummy mode, allowing them to remain as decorative models without gameplay functionality.
Technical Systems
The mod adds:
-
Persistent NBT-backed horse data
-
Synced multiplayer horse traits
-
Breed-based spawning
-
Spawn-group inheritance
-
Coat restriction systems
-
Advanced breeding inheritance
-
Custom GUI systems
-
Server/client mixins
-
Translation support for:
- breeds
- genders
- coats
- UI labels
- HUD text
- breeding messages
Developer Notes
Icy’s Better Horses is one of my first large-scale modding projects, and the mod continues to evolve with every update. Some models and textures are still being improved as I continue learning 3D modeling and animation workflows. Community feedback, testing, suggestions, and contributions are always welcome.
Screenshots
Gallery
-
Stabilizer in action Horse now glides when wearing a stabilizer! -
All Attachments horse equipped with upgraded saddle, stabilizer, and hooves -
Horse on water horses no longer sink and move faster in water! -
Horse Radial command dial all 5 commands when pressing R -
Horse Info Screen Shows you gender, breed and all other stats -
Horse Inventory Screen + items Horse inventory screen and all the new textures for items in the mod -
translucent horses when looking down! horses become see through when looking down for better visibility
-
Horse inventory UI + item textures Here you can see the new horse items + the new horse inventory screen -
Horse radial wheel Horse radial wheel with all the commands! -
transluscent horses! horses become see through when you look down, making it easy to see the ground underneath -
Horse Info Screen -
Horses can Glide! The stabilizer makes the horses glide down instead of falling to their deaths! -
Float! Horses now float on water!
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