Where to find horse armor in Minecraft

Image via Minecraft
Image via Minecraft

Horse armor in Minecraft can be very helpful for players whose preferred method of transportation is via horse or donkey.

There are four different kinds of horse armor in Minecraft: leather, iron, gold, and diamond.

Horse armor helps prevent a donkey or horse from taking significant damage when attacked, similar to a player’s armor. There is an added benefit to Minecraft horse armor, however, and that is the fact that it will never break, unlike regular player armor.

Because horse armor is an item that will last forever, it is definitely worth obtaining. The following is a guide on every way to find horse armor in Minecraft.


Types of Minecraft horse armor and where to search for them

Iron, gold and diamond horse armor

Image via Minecraft
Image via Minecraft

Minecraft horse armor is most commonly found in loot chests within various structures around any given world. Unfortunately though, finding horse armor in a loot chest is not always guaranteed.

Luckily, however, there are plenty of places to look for the item, so a player is sure to find some sort of horse armor eventually when searching in the following structures:

  • Dungeon
  • Desert temple
  • End city
  • Jungle temple
  • Nether fortress
  • Stronghold
  • Village (with weaponsmith)
  • Ruined portal*

*Ruined portals will only have gold horse armor as opposed to any other kind.

Iron horse armor is the most commonly found armor in loot chests. It is somewhat strong and will add a small layer of protection when equipped on a horse or donkey.

Gold horse armor is slightly less common to find in chests. Although, it is a bit stronger than iron horse armor.

Diamond horse armor is of course the rarest kind to find in a loot chest. While it is much less common, it's unsurprisingly the superior armor available in Minecraft for horses or donkeys.

Once a gamer is able to locate diamond horse armor for their trusty steed, they will likely not need any other kind of horse armor that they might also have on hand. Luckily, gold and iron horse armor can be smelted into nuggets of the same kind, and players will likely get more value out of gold or iron nuggets than an extra set of horse armor.

Leather horse armor

Image via Minecraft
Image via Minecraft

Unlike the other kinds, leather horse armor is not found in loot chests around a Minecraft world. It is perhaps the easiest to obtain with the downside being that it is not nearly as strong as the other versions of horse armor.

Uniquely, leather horse armor can be crafted manually. This is easily attainable as it only requires seven pieces of leather. Plus, leather horse armor can be obtained via trading with an expert leatherworker villager.

While it’s not as powerful, players may actually prefer leather horse armor if customization is a priority. Leather horse armor can be dyed in any color a player wants so long as they have their ideal dye color.

What’s even more interesting is that dye colors can be combined when dying leather horse armor, allowing for very specific customization styles. Check out this video about leather horse armor by OMGcraft for more:

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