Saddle

Saddles are items that can be placed on pigs, mules, donkeys and horses, which allow the player to ride them by right-clicking with the saddle. Pigs require a carrot on a stick for controlled movement, while horses do not. Saddles cannot be placed on any other mobs. The player can dismount the pig or horse by pressing left-shift. Saddles remain on pigs indefinitely. Killing the animal that has the saddle on will drop the saddle. If the animal is a horse, shift-right-clicking it will open its inventory and allow the player to remove the saddle without harming the animal.

Obtaining
Saddles are a rare item in the game; they are uncraftable, being found only in chests, inside dungeons, abandoned mineshafts, Nether Fortresses, Desert and Jungle Temples, in blacksmith chests found in NPC villages, or by trading with a villager. Also, saddles can be "caught" with a fishing rod. Prior to horses being added, Dinnerbone stated he will not be including a crafting recipe for saddles.

Pig carting


The player can continuously ride a pig in a minecart without stopping. Pig carting is when a player puts a saddle on a pig and pushes the pig into a minecart. The pig can then be ridden while it is in the cart, allowing a self-propelling minecart ride. The player on the minecart with the saddled pig travels significantly faster than a regular minecart with a mob or player on it. The player can actually overtake the powered minecart and rebound off of it to go in the opposite direction before rebounding from that direction and going back to the original direction. This will happen continuously if the tracks are a closed loop. If a saddled pig rides a minecart and the player mounts the pig, the player can control it, moving at a slow speed, with the left and right strafe keys. The pig will continue to move in much the same fashion if it is moved off the rails, thus making a "car". However, this is rather ineffective, as the car will only move pig speed (although it doesn't deplete your hunger). You can steer with a Carrot on a Stick. This is very effective, as there is no need to waste gold to build powered rails when you can just use a pig and a saddle. This method is a lot less expensive and just as efficient.

Horse Saddle
Horse saddles, not to be confused with the traditional Saddle were items that were added along with horses that worked just like regular saddles, but for horses instead of pigs. Taming a horse was required before putting a horse saddle on it.

The item I.D. used was 416.

Horse saddle items were later removed from the game, and the same saddles (found in dungeons) are now used for both pigs and horses.

Note that horse saddles use a texture similar if not the same as the crafted saddle in the popular mod Mo' Creatures, since the person who helped code horses for 1.6 made that mod.

Trivia

 * One of the splashes which shows up on the title screen reads "Ride the pig!".
 * If the pig the player is riding moves under low solid blocks, it is possible they can phase the player through these blocks, damaging the player through suffocation. This is similar to how the spider in a Spider Jockey will usually suffocate the skeleton if they spawn in caves.
 * When on a saddle, blocks are destroyed slower than on foot, at roughly the same speed as when underwater.
 * Since passive mobs no longer despawn as of beta 1.8, placing a saddle on a pig no longer wastes the saddle when you walk away, as long as the pig is not harmed.
 * It is not possible in SMP to ride a pig and have another player control the pig by walking in front of it while holding a carrot.
 * If you ride a pig off of a cliff, you can dismount from the pig before it hits the ground and take little to no fall damage, but the pig will still die. This can be very useful when trying to get the "When Pigs Fly" achievement.
 * If lightning strikes a pig while you are riding it, you will take damage, you will be dismounted and the pig will turn into a zombie pigman.
 * The player's body seems to be always facing the way the pig does, ignoring the direction player is looking. Switching to third person perspective allows to see only player's head rotating. This has not always been this way, it used to work just like minecarts.
 * A saddle is considered "armor" by the game, but the value of protection to the pig is equal to null, making no additional protection to the pig. A saddle can still be seen if the pig is invisible.
 * Punching a pig while holding a saddle causes the pig to wear the saddle, and it will be taken out of your inventory, even in creative mode.
 * Saddles were added in Pocket Edition in the 0.7.0 update, but are only accessible by Inventory editing and do not function.
 * However there is Riding Code in Pocket Edition.

Gallery
*Notice in Beta 1.8, their noses now protrude from their faces.