LEATHER HORSE ARMOR

Leather horse armor is the weakest of the four horse armor tiers but by far the easiest to get hold of. A Leatherworker dyes each one to match its own village's biome before selling it, so the colour on the shelf is not random, it is a record of where that particular villager lives.

At expert the price is 6 emeralds for 1 piece, and a crafting grid reaches the same item from nothing but leather, which keeps this trade as a convenience buy rather than the only route in.

One seller, one fixed price. A Leatherworker at expert charges 6 emeralds for 1 leather horse armor, a number set in the trade file rather than rolled, so a second Leatherworker at the same tier asks exactly the same.

No villager buys leather horse armor back off a player. The offer only runs one direction, emeralds out of your stack and armor into your inventory.

Leather Horse Armor sells for as little as 6 emeralds, from the Leatherworker at the Expert tier, and 3 of the other 5 cost less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Leatherworker will quote you exactly the same.

The Leatherworker at its expert tier asks 6 emeralds for leather horse armor. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

6 dark oak boats against 156 flint for the same 6 emeralds, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 3.8 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

Leather horse armor sits near the top of the Leatherworker's sheet rather than on its opening shelf, so a villager needs to reach expert, one tier short of its maximum, before the offer can appear.

Once open, the slot sells 1 piece at a time for 12 uses before locking, and a restock brings the same price back rather than rolling a new one.

12 pieces close out the slot, and the Leatherworker needs 2 real minutes back at its cauldron before the offer reopens. A Minecraft day runs 20 real minutes, room for exactly two of those refills.

One Leatherworker camped for a full day is worth 24 pieces, for 144 emeralds spent, the ceiling on a single villager no matter how much longer you wait around.

Clearing the shelf: one Leatherworker sells 12 leather horse armor before it has to restock, 72 emeralds for the full slot.

Where the emeralds come from: the same Leatherworker pays an emerald per 4 scutes.

Cure before a big buy: 72 emeralds for one full slot is enough that curing a zombie Leatherworker first, which cuts its prices permanently, pays for the golden apple many times over. How curing works.

Also on the Leatherworker's list: saddle, leather, leather leggings, leather tunic, flint, and leather cap.

Leather horse armour protects the least of the four kinds, but it is the only one that takes a colour: dye it in a cauldron and the horse wears whatever you mixed. For anyone building a stable that is the whole point of it.

Horse armour has no durability at all. Once it is on, it never wears out and never needs repairing, whatever the horse walks into, so the weakest set still lasts forever. It also cannot be worn by a player, and a donkey or a mule will not take it either.

Horse armour goes in the horse's own slot and stays there until you take it out. It cannot be enchanted, cannot be repaired on an anvil, and never wears out, which makes it the only armour in the game with no durability at all.

The leather kind is the only one with a recipe. The iron, gold and diamond versions exist purely as loot and trades, so a chest in a temple is the usual way anybody gets those.

It fits horses only. Donkeys and mules carry chests instead and wear nothing, and a llama takes a carpet rather than armour, which is a different slot doing a different job.