Skeleton Horse

A skeleton horse is an undead variant of the horse. It sometimes spawns when lightning strikes.

Spawning


A skeleton horseman is a hostile undead mob consisting of a skeleton and a skeleton horse. Skeleton horsemen spawn only from a "skeleton trap horse".

A skeleton trap horse is a hostile skeleton horse spawned from a fraction of lightning generated naturally by a thunderstorm (0.75–1.5% chance on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, and 2.25–6.75% on Hard, depending on regional difficulty). Lightning strikes caused by a Channeling-enchanted trident and lightning strikes on a lightning rod never spawn a skeleton trap horse. The trap horse despawns after 15 minutes if not triggered.

The skeleton trap horse is triggered when a player comes within 10 blocks of it, resulting in a lightning strike that does not start fires or damage nearby entities. When struck, the skeleton trap horse transforms into a skeleton horseman: a skeleton, a stray or a wither skeleton riding a skeleton horse. It also spawns three 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 to lightning).

Other notes:
 * The skeleton horses becomes passive and tamed if the player kills the skeleton.
 * 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 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 (and often a player encounters a trap horse after the thunderstorm has cleared).
 * The skeleton drops more experience orbs.
 * If the difficulty is set to Peaceful, the skeleton rider despawns but the horse remains.
 * The skeleton does not shoot any mob that attacks the skeleton horse, whether purposefully or accidently. The skeleton attacks only the player.
 * An explosion is heard, but nothing gets destroyed.

Skeleton horsemen can be spawned in Java Edition using the command, or in Bedrock Edition using the command.

Drops
Upon death, a skeleton horse drops: If saddled, it drops a saddle.
 * 0–2 s. The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 with Looting III.
 * when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Killing a baby skeleton horse yields no items or experience.

Usage
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.

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 armor. Despite this, the default texture file, like those of normal horses, donkeys and mules, includes a chest.
 * Bedrock Edition

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

The player can control a tamed (and saddled in Java Edition) skeleton horse with standard directional controls,, and the mouse. The player dismounts using the control.

$$, 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.

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 by using a lead to position the horse, then pushing it through the portal.

Unlike normal horses, a skeleton horse does not force the player to dismount when it enters water deeper than two blocks; rather, it can be ridden underwater without drowning. The player can still drown underwater without the proper potions or enchantments, even when mounted on the skeleton horse. When underwater, its running speed and jump remain the same although it has a slower rate of descent.

Behavior
While being ridden by skeleton horseman, the skeleton horse and rider move fast and maneuver like skeletons, strafing when attacking and backing up when the player moves toward them.

In Bedrock Edition, grown skeleton horses, like most mobs, can ride in minecarts and boats. Otherwise, baby skeleton horses can always 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 the player rides it. 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
A skeleton horse's health is always 15. Displayed hearts are health, divided by two, rounded down. A horse with an odd number of health points (15, 17, 19, etc.) does not show the last half-heart. If the horse has lost one health point lower 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, averaging 0.7.

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

The following derived equation can be used to approximate a horse jump height, with x being its jump strength attribute. This function was fit to the data found in the table below.


 * $$\mathsf{JumpHeight} = -0.182 x^3 + 3.67 x^2 + 2.13 x - 0.344$$

The jump strengths required to clear several block heights are:

Sounds
Skeleton horse sounds are the sounds of the regular horse but lower pitched and slowed with reverb.

ID




Entity data
Skeleton horses have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.




 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.
 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Trivia

 * Dr. Zhark appears in the credits after the End Poem as the creator of the horses, including skeleton horses.
 * $5 1/4$, 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.