Skeleton Horse

Skeleton horses are undead variants of regular horses.

Spawning


Skeleton horses spawn only from "skeleton traps", when lightning strikes a horse within 4 blocks.

A "skeleton trap" horse is a skeleton horse spawned from a fraction of lightning strikes during a thunderstorm (0.75–1.5% chance on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, and 2.8125–6.75% on Hard, depending on regional difficulty). It despawns after 15 minutes if not triggered.

When a player comes within 10 blocks of the skeleton trap horse, lightning strikes it. This lightning cannot start fires or damage nearby entities. When struck, the skeleton trap horse transforms into a skeleton horseman: a skeleton riding a skeleton horse. It also spawns two additional skeleton horsemen in the vicinity. Each skeleton is equipped with an enchanted iron helmet and an enchanted bow, and has damage immunity for 3 seconds after spawning ($$ both horse and rider are immune only from lightning). Skeleton horsemen move fast and maneuver exactly like skeletons, strafing when attacking and backing up when the player moves towards them.

Other notes:
 * 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 becomes fully grown if it was a baby, and the breeding cooldown is reset.
 * The original horse is tamed when struck, and the additional three horses are spawned tamed.
 * The skeletons do not despawn if  is set.
 * 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.
 * The skeleton drops more experience orbs.

Drops
Upon death, skeleton horses drop: If saddled, they drop their saddle.
 * 0–2 . The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 with Looting III.
 * 1–3 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Usage
Tamed and saddled 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. 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 a potion).

They can be ridden in water in any depth. Skeleton horses sink in the water and can be ridden along the ocean or river floor.

Skeleton horses can be pulled using a lead $$, but not $$.

Equipment
Skeleton horses have the following slot available: Saddles can be placed on a skeleton horse by holding it and then right clicking on the skeleton horse, or by accessing its inventory. A skeleton horse's inventory can be accessed by mounting the skeleton horse and opening the player inventory or by ing and then right-clicking on the horse.
 * Java Edition
 * Saddle Slot: For equipping a saddle.

A skeleton horse does not have an inventory and cannot be equipped with a saddle or given armor.
 * Bedrock Edition

A skeleton horse can be equipped with a saddle, but not armor.
 * Legacy Console Edition

Riding
Once a skeleton horse is tamed and saddled, the player can control it with standard directional controls,, and the mouse. The player dismounts using the control.

$$, skeleton horses can be controlled by the player without a saddle. However, $$, skeleton horses can be equipped with a saddle and then controlled.

When riding a horse, the hunger bar is replaced by the horse's health in survival or adventure mode. It uses a slightly different heart texture than the player's health bar having a brown appearance. The experience bar is replaced by the horse leaping bar. $$, the horse health bar is still visible on creative.

A player can use any item while riding a horse, including drinking or throwing potions; activating doors or redstone devices; using chests, crafting tables, and furnaces; breaking and placing blocks; and attacking with melee weapons or bows.

A ridden horse automatically runs up any one block high slope. The 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. Horses cannot fit through a 1-block-wide gap.

It is impossible for a player to use a Nether portal while on a horse. It is possible however, to enter the portal on the horse and then dismount, sending the horse through the portal on its own, or use a lead to position the horse, then push it through the portal.

Unlike normal horses, a skeleton horse does not dismount the player when it enters water deeper than two blocks; rather, it can be ridden underwater without the skeleton horse drowning. When underwater, its running speed and jump remain the same although it has a slower rate of descent.

Behavior
Skeleton horses, like most mobs, can ride in minecarts and boats. They can also be tamed by the player.

Unlike other passive mobs, skeleton horses slowly regenerate health evident by their health bar while riding a tamed horse. This is the same case for normal horses. However, they cannot be bred or fed.

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
Skeleton horse's health is always 15. Displayed hearts are health, divided by two, rounded down. A horse with an non-even number of health points (15, 17, 19, etc.) does not show the last half-heart. You may strike a horse to test this. If the horse has lost one fewer health point 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 0.4–1.0, tending towards the average of 0.7.

A jump strength of 0.5 is enough to clear $1 9/16$ blocks, while 1.0 is enough to clear $5 1/4$ blocks.

The following derived equation can be use to calculate a horse jump height from its jump strength attribute (with an rss of 5.510e-19). This function was fit to the data found in the table below and is therefore most accurate around these values. Where x is JumpStrength

The exact jump strengths, to 15 digits, required to clear several block heights are listed below.

Data values
Skeleton horses have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia

 * Dr. Zhark appears in the credits after the End Poem as the creator of the horses, including skeleton horses.
 * On multiplayer, it is possible to find out which of two skeleton horses (owned and ridden by different players) is faster. Each rider needs to apply a lead to the other horse, then play 'tug of war'. The stronger horse is faster.
 * It is possible to summon a rideable skeleton horse using the command, which spawns a horse wearing a saddle, which the player can then mount. Like a donkey there is no armor slot, but also no way to equip a chest.
 * In the 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.