Use Leather Pants to Prevent Slowness and Damage

Leather Pants as Protection

Wearing leather pants while riding a horse without a saddle negates both the Slowness effect and periodic damage (if enabled). This allows you to ride bareback at full speed without taking health loss.

Durability Cost

Each time your leather pants prevent an effect, their durability decreases. This means leather pants are a consumable resource—the more you ride bareback, the faster they wear out. You'll need to repair or replace them regularly.

You can disable this durability loss in the config by setting leatherPantsLoseDurabilityOnNegation to false, if you prefer leather pants to be a permanent solution.

Balancing Protection and Resources

Leather pants offer a middle ground between saddles and unprotected bareback riding. They're easier to obtain than saddles but will eventually break. Plan your journeys accordingly, and keep spare leather pants in your inventory for long trips.