The ever more popular block game created by Markus Persson has received another important update. This Minecraft update is known as The Horse Update, and as the name suggests one of the major additions are horses. There also donkeys and mules, and like horses these can be bred and spawn naturally.

Download: Minecraft 1.6.1 for Windows, Mac or Linux

These animals have to be tamed before you to ride them, but once you do they are a fun way of transportation and you can add chests to their saddles (donkeys and mules). To add a little more excitement you can name your horses like other 'pets' and add different armors like iron and diamond.

Other improvements include a conversion tool to convert texture pack to resource packs, which among other things allows you to add sounds to different items.

As with previous updates there are some performance and stability fixes as well. When it comes to gameplay you can expect improvements in riding mounts, respiration enhancements, extra tooltips, carpets in different colors which can be added on blocks, and like you can do stain wool you can now do stained clay. For the builders there is now hardened clay which is just as hard as stone.