Better Horse Movement

What this mod does

The mod requires Mixin Booter and Elegant Networking to function.

This mod completely overhauls horse controls in Minecraft, making them more realistic and smooth. Horses now turn in the direction of their movement instead of always facing where the player is looking. Direction changes happen gradually with smooth rotation, creating a natural movement feel.

Horses have received light acceleration, making their movement smoother and less jarring. Sprinting capability has been added - when accelerating, the horse moves faster but turns much slower. Regular horses can now swim in water, and water no longer dismounts the player.

Random rearing and sudden movement halts have been removed. Horse hitboxes are slightly smaller, but the required space remains approximately the same.

Leaning mechanics have been added: when the player looks down from the horse, their character leans over for a better view. When drawing a bow, the lean increases, allowing shooting downward from the horse. There's also subtle head bobbing up and down while riding a moving horse.

Settings and Statistics

All wild horse parameters (health, jump height, and speed) are now configurable, including distribution, minimum and maximum values. The breeding system has changed: foal characteristics are now calculated as the average of the parents with a small random deviation, rather than adding statistics from a completely random horse.

Limitations

The mod does not add horse armor or saddle enchantments, does not allow taming undead horses, does not include automatic horse movement or horse calling with whistles. Works only on version 1.12 with no plans to support other versions.

Demonstration

With mod:

Without mod:

Leaning mechanics demonstration (may look somewhat odd in third person while drawing a bow):