Skeleton Horse

Skeleton horses are undead variants of regular horses.

Spawning


Skeleton horses spawn only from "skeleton traps".

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 will strike 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 will also spawn three additional skeleton horsemen in the vicinity. Each skeleton is equipped with an enchanted iron helmet and an enchanted bow, and have damage immunity for 3 seconds after spawning. 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 will be wearing an iron helmet, unless it randomly spawned with some other headgear.
 * The skeleton's bow and helmet will be enchanted as if on an enchantment table at level 5–22. The exact level depends on regional difficulty; on Easy it will always be a level-5 enchantment.
 * The skeleton trap horse will become fully grown if it was a baby, and the breeding cooldown will be reset.
 * The original horse will be tamed when struck, and the additional three horses are spawned tamed.
 * The skeletons will 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.

Drops
Upon death, skeleton horses drop:

If armored or saddled, they will drop anything equipped.
 * 1–3 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Using a weapon enchanted with Looting increases the maximum amount of drops by 1 per level of Looting, up to a maximum of 5 at Looting III.

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 about 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

Much like other passive mobs, skeleton horses can be pulled using a lead.

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 has an inventory and can be equipped with a saddle and given armor, much like Java Edition.
 * Bedrock 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 an orange/brown appearance. The experience bar is replaced by the horse leaping bar. $$, the horse health bar will still be 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 will automatically run 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.

The maximum speed of horses varies between 4.8375 blocks/second and 14.5125 blocks/second (compared to the player's walking speed, which is about 4.3 blocks/second). About 68% of horses are able to go faster than a minecart. A fast horse can be combined with speed potions and the Nether to make the horse easily the fastest practical way to travel in Minecraft (around 130 m/s Overworld-equivalent in the Nether). The speed of a horse has no relation to its outward appearance. However, horses are very slow when moving backwards, and about as fast as the player when moving sideways.

A ridden horse can be made to, and holding the control charges for a higher leap. Horses are not affected by jump boost beacons or potions. The standard control dismounts from the horse, as does going in water deeper than two blocks. Like the player, horses take fall damage when falling from heights.

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 will not dismount the player when it enters water deeper than two blocks; rather, it can be ridden underwater without the skeleton horse running out of air. When underwater, its running speed and jump will remain the same but it will have a slower rate of descent.

Behavior
Skeleton horses will roam idly, occasionally stopping to rear, swish their tails, or lower their heads to eat grass. Unlike sheep, the eating animation does not actually cause any grass to be consumed. If a player comes near, the horses may turn to look at them.

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 will slowly regenerate health evident by their health bar while riding a tamed horse. This is the same case for normal horses. They cannot be bred or fed too.

Health
Skeleton horse's health is always 15.

Movement speed
Skeleton horse's speed is always 0.2;

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

Trivia

 * It is possible to summon a ride-able skeleton horse using the command which will spawn 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.