Saddle

Saddles are items that can be placed on pigs, mules, donkeys and horses, which allow the player to ride them by pressing with the saddle.

Natural generation
Saddles can be found in chests inside dungeons, abandoned mineshafts, Nether fortresses, Desert temples, Jungle Temples and in blacksmith chests in NPC villages.

Fishing
Saddles can be obtained as a "treasure" item from fishing.

Trading
Villager leatherworkers will sell saddles for 8-10 emeralds as a third tier trade.

Horse Saddle
Horse saddles, 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 ID used was 416, this item ID now refers to the Armor Stand in current versions.

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

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 riding a pig or horse, block mining time is reduced considerably.
 * 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 that since Beta 1.8, their noses now protrude from their faces.