Skeleton Horse

A skeleton horse is an undead neutral variant of the horse. It sometimes spawns when lightning strikes.

Spawning[]

SkeletonRiderGroup — A group of skeleton horsemen spawned by a "skeleton trap" horse.

A “skeleton trap horse” is a neutral skeleton horse that has a chance of spawning in a lightning strike during a naturally occurring thunderstorm (0.75–1.5% chance on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, and 2.25–6.75% on Hard, depending on regional difficulty).

The skeleton trap horse is triggered when a player comes within 10 blocks of it, resulting in a second lightning strike. When struck, the skeleton trap horse transforms into a skeleton horseman: a skeleton riding a skeleton horse. It also spawns three additional skeleton horsemen in the vicinity.

The skeleton will be equipped with an enchanted iron helmet and an enchanted bow. In Java Edition both the horse and horseman have damage immunity for 3 seconds after spawning. In Bedrock Edition, both the horse and horseman are always immune to lightning.

Trap skeleton horse can be spawned in Java Edition using the command /summon skeleton_horse ~ ~ ~ {SkeletonTrap:1}.

In Java Edition, both the lightning that spawns a trap horse, and the lightning that triggers the trap don't strike nearby entities or spawn fires. Lightning strikes caused by a Channeling-enchanted trident and lightning strikes on a lightning rod never spawn a skeleton trap horse. The trap horse despawns after 15 minutes if not triggered.

Drops[]

Upon death, a skeleton horse drops:

0–2 Bones. The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0–5 with Looting III.
1–3 when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

If saddled, it drops a saddle.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Killing a baby skeleton horse yields no items or experience. In Bedrock Edition, killing a trap skeleton horse also yields no items or experience.

Usage[]

Skeleton horses can be used as one of the fastest means of transportation in the game, though they are unable to fit through single block-wide openings. When ridden, they can also be used to climb hills and jump fences because the skeleton horses can jump up to five block heights, versus the player's maximum of one (without jump boost).

They can be ridden in water in any depth, and do so faster than non-skeleton horses. Skeleton horses sink in the water and can be ridden along the ocean or river floor.

Skeleton horses can be pulled using a lead.

Equipment[]

Skeleton Horse GUI — GUI of a skeleton horse.‌^{[JE only]}

Java Edition

Skeleton horses have the following slot available:

Saddle Slot: For equipping a saddle.

Saddles can be placed on a tamed skeleton horse by holding it and then using on the skeleton horse, or by accessing its inventory. A skeleton horse's inventory can be accessed by mounting the skeleton horse and using inventory control, or by sneaking and then using on the skeleton horse.

Baby skeleton horses cannot be equipped.

Bedrock Edition

A skeleton horse does not have an inventory and cannot be equipped with a saddle or armor. Despite this, the default texture file, like those of normal horses, donkeys and mules, includes a chest.

Riding[]

In Bedrock Edition, skeleton horses can be controlled by the player without a saddle. However, in Java Edition, skeleton horses can be equipped with a saddle and then controlled. Like riding other entities, it is impossible for a player to use a nether portal or end portal while on a skeleton horse.

The player can control a tamed (and saddled Java Edition) skeleton horse with standard directional controls, jump, and the mouse. The player dismounts using the dismount control.

A player controlled skeleton horse automatically runs up any one block high slope. The skeleton horse and rider can safely fit through a space as low as 2.75 blocks high. Lower clearance risks suffocating the rider if the rider's head enters a non-transparent block. The horse itself can enter gaps as low as 1.625 blocks high, but may itself take suffocation damage when clearance is less than 1.75 blocks. Skeleton horses cannot fit through a 1-block-wide gap.

Player controlled skeleton horses have the ability of "jumping charging". When the player rides them, the experience bar on HUD is replaced by jumping charging bar. A controlled skeleton horses can be made to jump and holding the control charges for a higher leap. Skeleton horses are not affected by jump boost beacons or potions.

Unlike normal horses, a skeleton horse does not force the player to dismount when it is under water; rather, it can be ridden underwater without drowning. The player can still drown underwater without the proper potions or enchantments, even when mounted on the skeleton horse. When underwater, its running speed and jump remain the same although it has a slower rate of descent.

Behavior[]

The skeleton horse is an undead mob that is initially neutral, but become passive after their rider is killed. Skeleton horses behave like normal horses, roaming idly and occasionally stopping to rear or lower their heads as though eating the grass. Unlike sheep, the eating animation does not actually cause any grass to be consumed. Skeleton horses can breathe in water.

Unlike other animal mobs, skeleton horses slowly regenerate health evident by their health bar while the player rides it. This is the same case for normal horses.

Skeleton horses cannot be bred or fed.

Skeleton horses, in common with other undead mobs, take damage when affected by a Potion of Healing and are healed by a Potion of Harming. They are also affected by the Smite enchantment.

Other notes:

In Java Edition, skeleton horses spawned by skeleton horse traps spawn tamed. In Bedrock Edition, skeleton horses are always tamed regardless of spawning conditions.
The skeleton horses are passive if the player kills the skeleton rider.
The skeleton wears an iron helmet, unless it randomly spawned with some other headgear.
The skeleton's bow and helmet are enchanted as if on an enchantment table at level 5–22. The exact level depends on regional difficulty; on Easy it is always a level-5 enchantment.
The skeleton trap horse and the skeleton horse in a jockey are always adult. In Bedrock Edition, the skeleton trap horse is not an adult nor a baby, though it looks like an adult.
- Baby skeleton horses can be spawned with a spawn egg. Baby skeleton horses cannot grow up normally In Bedrock Edition.
The skeleton in a naturally spawned skeleton horseman jockey does not despawn.
A trap horse may spawn in areas that a regular horse may not, such as the middle of an ocean.
A trap horse can trigger normally in clear weather (and often a player encounters a trap horse after the thunderstorm has cleared).
The skeleton drops more experience orbs.
If the difficulty is set to Peaceful, the skeleton riders disappear but the horses remain.
The skeleton does not shoot any mob that attacks the skeleton horse.
In Bedrock Edition, skeleton horses will be killed by the Conduit like any regular hostile mob, despite being tamed.

Statistics[]

All horses have three "equine stats" that vary from horse to horse: health, maximum movement speed, and jump strength. These stats are created once the horse is born or spawned, and are not affected by food.

Spawned values[]

When spawned in any way except breeding – for instance, using commands, spawning naturally, spawning as part of a skeleton trap, or using spawn eggs – horses are assigned their stats within certain ranges, specific according to their horse type.

Health[]

A skeleton horse's health is always 15. Displayed hearts are health, divided by two, rounded down. A horse with an odd number of health points (15, 17, 19, etc.) does not show the last half-heart. If the horse has lost one health point lower than the inflicted damage and did not regenerate, it has an odd number of health points, otherwise, it has an even number of health points.

Movement speed[]

Skeleton horse's speed is always 0.2; the player's normal walking speed is 0.1. The speed listed does not include any status effect that affects the speed of a horse or a player.

See transportation to compare the speeds of various transportation methods.

Jump strength[]

Jump strength ranges from 0.4 to 1.0, averaging 0.7.

A jump strength of 0.5 is enough to clear 1 ¹⁹⁄₃₂ blocks, while 1.0 is enough to clear 5 ⁹⁄₃₂ blocks.

The jump strengths required to clear several block heights are:

Jump Strength	Blocks
0.967	5.00
0.848	4.00
0.716	3.00
0.565	2.00
0.431	1.25 (player's jump height)

Sounds[]

Skeleton horse sounds are the sounds of the regular horse but lower pitched and slowed with reverb.
Java Edition:
Skeleton horses use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Skeleton Horse cries	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while in air	`entity.skeleton_horse.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.skeleton_horse.ambient`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
Skeleton Horse cries	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while in water	`entity.skeleton_horse.ambient_water`	`subtitles.entity.skeleton_horse.ambient`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
Skeleton Horse dies	Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse dies	`entity.skeleton_horse.death`	`subtitles.entity.skeleton_horse.death`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
Horse gallops	Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is galloping	`entity.horse.gallop`	`subtitles.entity.horse.gallop`	Block-Dependent	Block-Dependent	16
Horse gallops	Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is galloping on blocks in water	`entity.skeleton_horse.gallop_water`	`subtitles.entity.horse.gallop`	0.15	0.6-1.4	16
Skeleton Horse hurts	Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse is damaged	`entity.skeleton_horse.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.skeleton_horse.hurt`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
Horse jumps	Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse begins a leap	`entity.horse.jump`	`subtitles.entity.horse.jump`	0.4	1.0	16
None^{[sound 1]}	Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse attempts to begin a leap in water	`entity.skeleton_horse.jump_water`	None^{[sound 1]}	0.32	1.0	16
Something fell	Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse falls from more than 1 block	`entity.horse.land`	`subtitles.entity.generic.big_fall`	0.4	1.0	16
Skeleton Horse swims	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while a skeleton horse is moving through water	`entity.skeleton_horse.swim`	`subtitles.entity.skeleton_horse.swim`	^{[sound 2]}	0.6-1.4	16
Footsteps	Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is walking	`entity.horse.step`	`subtitles.generic.block.footsteps`	Block-Dependent	Block-Dependent	16
None^{[sound 3]}	Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is walking in water	`entity.skeleton_horse.step_water`	None^{[sound 3]}	0.18	0.6-1.4	16
Saddle equips	Friendly Creatures	When a saddle is equipped to a skeleton horse	`entity.horse.saddle`	`subtitles.entity.horse.saddle`	0.5	1.0	16

↑ ^a ^b MC-177091
↑ The precise equation is as follows:
$\text{velocity}=\operatorname{sqrt}(\text{speed.x}^2\times0.2+\text{speed.y}^2+\text{speed.z}^2\times0.2)$
$\text{volume}=$ (whichever is smaller) 0.1 or ( $\text{velocity}\times10$ if being ridden and $\text{velocity}\times8.75$ if not)
↑ ^a ^b MC-177090

Bedrock Edition:

Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
Friendly Creatures	Randomly	`mob.horse.skeleton.idle`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event^{[sound 1]}	`mob.horse.armor`	0.6	1.0 (Baby: 1.5)
Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event^{[sound 2]}	`mob.horse.armor`	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event	`mob.horse.breath`	0.7	1.0 (Baby: 1.5)
Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse dies	`mob.horse.skeleton.death`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is galloping while in air	`mob.horse.gallop`	0.45	0.9-1.1
Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse is damaged	`mob.horse.skeleton.hit`	0.8	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse begins a leap	`mob.horse.jump`	0.4	1.0
Friendly Creatures	When a skeleton horse falls from more than 1 block	`mob.horse.land`	0.4	1.0 (Baby: 1.5)
Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is walking	`mob.horse.soft`	0.45	0.9-1.1
Friendly Creatures	While a skeleton horse is walking on wood^{[sound 3]} or is being ridden	`mob.horse.wood`	0.45	0.9-1.1
Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event	`mob.horse.leather`	0.6	1.0

↑ This sound event would occur if skeleton horses could have armor equipped.
↑ This sound event would occur if skeleton horses could have a chest equipped.
↑ Except for stems, Nether wood, cherry wood, and bamboo wood due to MCPE-165012

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Skeleton Horse	`skeleton_horse`	`entity.minecraft.skeleton_horse`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Skeleton Horse	`skeleton_horse`	`26`	`entity.skeleton_horse.name`

Entity data[]

Skeleton horses have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can breed
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- Tags common to all horses
- SkeletonTrap: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the horse is a trapped skeleton horse. Does not affect horse type.
- SkeletonTrapTime: Incremented each tick when SkeletonTrap is set to 1. The horse automatically despawns when it reaches 18000 (15 minutes).

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst`

History[]

Java Edition
4 April 2013					Jeb hinted at adding horses when Minecraft hit 10,000,000 sales.
1.6.1		13w16a			Added skeleton horses.
					The addition of skeleton horses, along with other horses, has been assisted by DrZhark (John Olarte), creator of the Mo' Creatures mod, whose horses are a baseline for Minecraft's horse models.^[1]
					Skeleton horses are not available yet without the use of third party commands.
		13w21a			Added new GUI for horses, including skeleton horses; to control saddles, armor and inventories.
		13w22a			Added new sound effects for skeleton horses.
1.7.2		13w36a			Skeleton horses are now available without third-party tools, with the introduction of the `/summon` command.
1.9		15w38a			Added "skeleton trap" horses.
		15w38a			There is a chance (depending on regional difficulty) that a lightning strike spawns a "skeleton trap" skeleton horse.
		15w43a–44b			The drops of skeleton horses have been changed several times. The end result is that skeleton horses now always drop one bone, not affected by Looting.
1.10		16w20a			Added spawn eggs for skeleton horses.
1.10		pre2			The spawn eggs for skeleton horses have been removed.
1.11		16w32a			Horses now have separate IDs and the ID for skeleton horses has been changed to `skeleton_horse`.
					The spawn egg for skeleton horses has been re-added.
					Skeleton trap horses' chance to spawn during lightning strikes has been reduced to ¹⁄₅ of what it was.
		16w38a			Skeleton horses now drop 0–2 of bones or rotten flesh, affected by Looting.
1.13		17w45a			The models of skeleton horses have been changed.
		17w46a			The new models for skeleton horses have been slightly tweaked.
		18w03a			The models of skeleton horses have been updated again and the textures have been slightly altered.
		18w19a			Skeleton horses now sink in water, due to being an undead mob. Zombie horses, curiously, do not.^[2]
		18w19a			The player can now ride skeleton horses when underwater.
		pre2			The model of skeleton horses has been updated to fix serious Z-fighting, which has changed the model from to .^[3]
1.14		19w08a			The textures of skeleton horses have been changed.
1.14		19w08a			The textures of "skeleton trap" horses have been changed.
1.16		20w09a			Skeleton horses can now be leashed.^[4]
1.19.4		23w03a			The texture of the skeleton horse has been changed.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0		build 1			Added "skeleton trap" horses.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The entity ID for skeleton horse has been changed from `skeletonhorse` to `skeleton_horse`.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.6		beta 1.2.6.2			The models of skeleton horses have been changed to Java Edition 17w45a's skeleton horse models.
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			Skeleton horses can now be ridden underwater.
1.8.0		beta 1.8.0.8			Skeleton horse foals now have a chance of being spawned using a spawn egg.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of skeleton horses have been changed.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of "skeleton trap" horses have been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Added "skeleton trap" horses.
TU54	CU44	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Skeleton horses are now able to be spawned with a spawn egg found in the creative inventory.
TU57	CU49	1.56	Patch 27	1.0.7	Skeleton horses can now be tamed and leashed.
TU60	CU51	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.7	The models of skeleton horses have been changed to Java Edition 17w45a's skeleton horse models.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					The textures of skeleton horses have been changed.
1.90					The textures of "skeleton trap" horses have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added "skeleton trap" horses.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Skeleton horse" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Dr. Zhark appears in the credits after the End Poem as the creator of the horses, including skeleton horses.
In Bedrock Edition, skeleton horses can be transported in a boat by riding the skeleton horse and jumping into the boat then dismounting (leaving the horse behind in the boat) and activating the boat from underneath/underwater. Attempting to activate the boat in order to pilot it from above results in the player being mounted on the horse again rather than being placed inside the boat to pilot it.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

A skeleton horse spawned in.
The four variations of skeleton traps using "Grumm" or "Dinnerbone" name tags.
Skeleton horses spawned from a trapped skeleton horse.
A player riding a skeleton horse, having killed the skeleton rider.
A player riding a skeleton horse underwater. It can run and jump.
Skeleton horse with saddle‌^{[Java Edition only]} in survival after defeating the skeleton horse trap.
A skeleton horse in Minecraft Education.