How to get skeleton horses in Minecraft

Skeleton horses are one of the coolest mobs in Minecraft. They're also very rare. They're always twice as fast as a player's walking speed and they can be ridden with or without a saddle, making them a great mob to stumble upon on a journey.

They can be saddled as well as armored and put on a lead, but a saddle is not required, making them a lot easier to acquire. Here's how players can get them in Minecraft.

Shout out to videogame skeleton horses pic.twitter.com/pEC6rxFJ5F

— Lowie (@Lowie_normie) August 14, 2021

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Skeleton horses in Minecraft

Skeleton horses can come in a few ways. There is a spawn egg available through creative mode that will always spawn a skeleton horse. They can also be summoned through commands with "/summon skeleton_horse" and it will spawn in front of the player.

They can occur naturally in Minecraft, though. If lightning strikes a horse, it can turn into skeleton horses. A similar effect occurs when lightning strikes pigs, turning them into piglins. That is a rare occurrence, though. Lightning strikes are completely random and can only occur during a specific weather event: thunderstorms.

Thunderstorms can also be controlled by commands, but that's not organic. The command is "/weather thunder [duration]". The duration input can set how long it will be that weather before reverting to a normal weather cycle. Thunderstorms can be dangerous, though, and lightning can kill players and mobs.

Thunderstorms are a rare weather event in Minecraft, but can spawn some unique mobs. Image via Minecraft

Once there is a thunderstorm, players have two ways of assisting the appearance of skeleton horses. The first way is to use a lightning rod. These are new additions to the 1.17 update and can be crafted with copper ingots. Placing them in a pen with horses will drastically improve the chances that a horse gets struck by lightning. That will in turn increase the chances of getting skeleton horses.

The other method involves using the Channeling enchant. This has to be put on a trident, which can only be acquired by killing a Drowned. If a player has that, they can summon a lightning strike at a horse and attempt to create a skeleton horse. A lightning strike is not guaranteed to spawn them, but it is the best way to try.

I found and tamed a skeleton horse tonight in Minecraft AND I LOVE HIM 🤩 I also learned you can ride a horse while riding in a boat with someone else 😂 #Minecraft pic.twitter.com/UimfiMqbVm

— Manda🐼🖤 (@_xo_mandi) August 5, 2020

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