Essential Minecraft Saddle Guide: Crafting & Tips

Great news: Minecraft finally adds saddles as a crafting item, and it’s only been 15 years. The saddles in Minecraft were introduced in 2010 as a means to ride pigs initially, and then the saddle was updated to ride horses, mules, striders, donkeys, and camels. The saddles were essentially a technology that was lost in time and couldn’t be crafted, or no one knew how to craft a masterpiece like that.

However, it is all about to change in the new update of Minecraft coming this summer 2025. They can be experienced now in Minecraft’s test realms (Java snapshot and Bedrock’s beta and preview). It is easy to craft; you just need three leather and one iron ingot if you want to give your pig a frolic break. Simply remove the saddle by shearing it. It’ll pop off, ready to be stored, put on another mount, or pointlessly carried in your inventory until you remember it’s there.

Finding Saddles in Minecraft

Before crafting saddles, it could be obtained as a treasure item from fishing, not always guaranteed. They could be obtained from a trader (master-level leatherworker villagers); they have a 50% chance to sell it for 7 emeralds as their trade, which works in Bedrock and Java editions and can also be obtained from mob loot; any mob that players equip with a saddle drops the saddle upon death.

A strider may spawn when ridden by a zombified piglin, which causes it to spawn while wearing a saddle. It always drops when the strider is killed.

A ravager spawns with a saddle and drops the saddle upon death. Looting does not affect the drop.

A frequent concern with saddles, and mounts by extension, is that they are most useful in the midgame and early game when they are most difficult to find. Unlike many essential items in the game, saddles could not be made using standard materials or crafting recipes. Instead, players had to rely on chance, finding them in dungeon chests, bastions, temples, or through fishing. This made saddles unnecessarily rare, especially for players eager to ride horses, pigs, or striders early in the game.

The randomness of saddle acquisition disrupted the game’s sense of progression for many players. You could spend hours exploring without finding one, delaying core gameplay experiences like taming and riding animals. This led to widespread requests from the community for a crafting option, arguing that a survival-focused game should allow players to build their tools, not just hope for them.

Thankfully, recent updates have finally addressed this issue, introducing a crafting recipe for saddles. This change brings more balance and fairness to the game, allowing players to take control of their adventure without depending solely on luck. For more gaming gear recommendations, check out Total Apex Gaming!