How to Craft a Saddle in Minecraft: What You'll Need

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Craft a saddle to ride your favorite animals in Minecraft

Written by Mogswamp | Edited by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: March 23, 2026 Fact Checked

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Crafting a Saddle

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Other Ways to Get a Saddle

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FAQ

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In early 2025, Minecraft finally added the ability to craft saddles. This was a huge development because the only other ways to get a saddle were to find one in chests, kill a specific mob that dropped one, fish one up, or trade for one. Now, with just a few simple ingredients, you can make your own saddles for all of your rideable creatures. In this article, we go over how to craft a saddle, as well as the other ways to find them. We also answer some frequently asked questions about Minecraft saddles. Read on to learn more!

Crafting a Minecraft Saddle

To craft a saddle in Minecraft, combine three Leather and one Iron Ingot. Place the Iron Ingot in the center of the crafting grid, then place a Leather above it, to the left of it, and to the right of it. You can also find saddles by killing mobs, opening chests, fishing, and trading.

Section 1 of 3:

Crafting a Saddle

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Combine three Leather and one Iron Ingot to craft a saddle. Thankfully, saddles are very easy to craft in Minecraft.^{[1]
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Research source} All you need is three Leather and one Iron Ingot. To craft the saddle, place the Iron Ingot in the middle of the crafting grid, then place one Leather each to the left, right, and above it.^{[2]
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Research source} Here's how to get these items:
- Leather:^{[3]
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  - Mob loot: Dropped by Cows, Mooshrooms, Horses, Llamas, Mules, Donkeys, Trader Llamas, and Hoglins.
  - Chest loot: Found in Monster Room chests, Ancient City chests, Bastion Remnant bridge chests and Hoglin stable chests, Desert Pyramid chests, Jungle Pyramid chests, Stronghold altar chests, or Village tanner's chests, confirms Minecraft Expert Mogswamp.^{[4]
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    Expert Source
    
    Mogswamp
    Minecraft Expert
    
    Expert Interview}
  - Crafting: Crafted by combining four Rabbit Hides.
  - Fishing loot: There's a 1% chance to get Leather when getting a junk item while fishing.
  - Bartering: Piglins may give you two to four Leather when giving them a Gold Ingot.
  - Villager gifts: If you have the Hero of the Village effect, leatherworkers villagers will throw Leather at you (Java Edition only).
- Iron Ingot:^{[5]
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  - Crafting: One Block of Iron makes nine Iron Ingots, while nine Iron Nuggets make one Iron Ingot.
  - Smelting: One Iron Ore, Deepslate Iron Ore, or Raw Iron, and any fuel will make one Iron Ingot.
  - Mob loot: Dropped by Zombies, Iron Golems, Zombie Villagers, and Husks.
  - Chest loot: Found in Monster Room chests, Mineshaft chests, Bastion Remnant bridge chests, treasure chests, or generic chests, Buried Treasure chests, Desert Pyramid chests, End City chests, Jungle Pyramid chests, Nether Fortress chests, Pillager Outpost chests, Shipwreck treasure chests, Stronghold storeroom chests or altar chests, Trial Chamber corridor pots, vault chests, and reward chests, Village toolsmith's/weaponsmith's/armorer's chests, or Woodland Mansion chests, confirms Mogswamp.^{[6]
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    Expert Source
    
    Mogswamp
    Minecraft Expert
    
    Expert Interview}

Section 2 of 3:

Other Ways to Get a Saddle

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Any mob that has a saddle equipped will drop a saddle when they die. Zombified piglins may spawn as strider jockeys; these piglins will be riding striders that drop saddles when they're killed. Ravagers will always drop a saddle upon death.^{[7]
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Chest lootSaddles can also be found in a few types of chests:
- Bastion Remnant: Hoglin stable chest (12% chance)
- End City: Chest (12.7% chance)
- Nether Fortress: Chest (33.3% chance)
- Village:
  - Weaponsmith's chest (14.4% chance)
  - Savanna house chest (11.3% chance)
  - Tanner's chest (17.3% chance)
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TradingMaster leatherworker villagers have saddles for trade for six emeralds. In Java Edition, master leatherworkers have a 100% chance to have saddles in stock, but it's only a 50% chance in Bedrock Edition.^{[8]
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FishingWhen you go fishing, you have a 0.8% chance to reel in a saddle.^{[9]
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Section 3 of 3:

FAQ

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How do I remove a saddle? If you're removing a saddle from an equine, camel, or nautilus, you can remove it from the saddle slot, or you can remove it by using shears on the animal. If you're removing a saddle from a pig or a strider, you can only remove it by using shears.
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I put a saddle on my pig/strider, but why isn't it listening to me? To control a pig or a strider, you need to have a saddle on the creature, but you also need a Carrot on a Stick to control pigs or a Warped Fungus on a Stick to control striders.
- A Carrot on a Stick can be crafted by combining a Fishing Rod or a Damaged Fishing Rod and a Carrot.^{[10]
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- A Warped Fungus on a Stick can be crafted by combining a Fishing Rod or a Damaged Fishing Rod and a Warped Fungus.^{[11]
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Will putting a saddle on a creature stop it from despawning? Yes, putting a saddle on an equine, camel, pig, strider, or nautilus will stop it from despawning. Removing the saddle will leave the creature vulnerable to despawning again.
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What creatures can have a saddle equipped? Saddles can be put on horses, donkeys, mules, skeleton horses, zombie horses, camels, camel husks, nautiluses, zombie nautiluses, pigs, and striders.