A player riding a pig.
Saddles are items that can be placed on pigs, which allows the player to ride them by right-clicking with the saddle. However, the pig's movement cannot be controlled by the Player. 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. If a saddled pig is killed or struck by lightning, the pig will not drop the saddle.
Saddles are only found in the chests that are inside dungeons, though it is likely that a recipe for saddles will be added, with leather as an ingredient, since on the Achievements page you must get the "Cow Tipper" achievement before the "When Pigs Fly" achievement.
Achievements
The Saddle is featured in the "When Pigs Fly" Achievement.
History
Saddles were added in Infdev Seecret Friday Update 2 on the 25th of June, 2010.
When baby animals were introduced, baby pigs could be ridden just like adult pigs. After version 1.2.4, baby pigs could no longer be saddled.
Pig Carting
The player riding a saddled pig in a minecart and rebounding off a powered minecart.
Since the Alpha 1.2.4 update,(not sure, needs verification) the Player can continuously ride a saddled 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 fasion if it is moved off the rails, thus making a "car". However, this is rather ineffective, as the car, though steerable and though it doesn't deplete your hunger, will only move pig speed and cannot jump. As of 1.2.5, this only works in single player.
Trivia
- By throwing chicken eggs or snowballs at the pig while riding it, it is possible to ride a pig high into the air. However, this is tricky to pull off because when you right click on the pig to throw something, you dismount the pig.
- If you would like a pig to walk if it is sitting still you may point your cursor directly down at the pig and hit it. Be careful however, after so many times it will die. If you walk it off a cliff or mountain, it, and you, may die.
- If the pig you are riding enters an area with an overhang, it's possible for the pig's jumping to phase you into the overhead blocks, damaging you through suffocation.
- Leg armor is invisible while riding a pig. When you crouch, you see both the armor, and your legs. The armor is down, but the legs are sitting.
- When on a saddle, blocks are destroyed slower than on foot, and at roughly the same speed as when underwater.
- Since passive mobs no longer seem to 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't go anywhere.
- One of the splashes which shows up on the title screen reads "Ride the pig!" (Possibly a reference to the TV show Invader Zim).