Saddle

Saddles are items that can be placed on pigs, which allow the player to ride them by right-clicking with the saddle. However, the pig's movement cannot be controlled. As of 12w36a however, they can be controlled using a carrot on a stick. Saddles cannot be placed on any other mobs. The player can climb off and on the pig as they please, and the saddle will remain on the pig indefinitely. As of 1236a, if a saddled pig is killed or struck by lightning, the pig will drop the saddle.

Saddles are only found in chests inside dungeons or by trading with a villager. Dinnerbone confirmed that there will not be 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 overlap 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 mount 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, as though it doesn't deplete your hunger, you will only move pig speed and cannot jump or steer. This is very effective as there is no need to waste gold to build electric rails when you can just use a pig and a saddle.

Whenever you put a saddle on a pig, it is impossible to remove it from the pig (untrue as of 12w36a).

Bugs

 * Leg armor is invisible while riding a pig. When crouching, the player sees both the armor, and their legs. The armor is down, but the legs are sitting.
 * Pigs that are being ridden in SMP will ignore any wheat held by other players.
 * When in multiplayer, when looking at another character riding a pig, it'll change your characteristics to make you look like you are riding a pig. This applies to pants, boots and your empty hand.

Trivia

 * One of the splashes which shows up on the title screen reads "Ride the pig!".
 * By throwing chicken eggs or snowballs at the pig while riding it, or simply punching it, it used to be possible to ride a pig high into the air. However, this is tricky to pull off because right clicking on the pig to throw something may dismount the pig. This has since been patched.
 * It would probably be easiest to pull this off by throwing these items upwards, however it is likely you will miss a few.
 * 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.
 * 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 1.8, placing a saddle on a pig no longer wastes the saddle when you walk away, as long as the pig can not be harmed.
 * It is not possible to throw Ender Pearls while riding a pig, but if players look down at the pig and throw a Pearl they will be dismounted from the pig and take the Ender Pearl's damage.
 * 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 wheat.
 * 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, and the pig will be demounted and turned into a zombie pigman.