Small, focused quality-of-life features for horses: a cleaner first-person ride, plus two long-requested gameplay additions: storage chests on regular horses and two players riding one horse.

It's split into two independent halves, and the mod is optional on both ends:

Install it client-side for the visual tweaks.
Install it server-side for the gameplay features — these work even for vanilla players connected to your server.
Install it on both for the full experience.

Gameplay Features (Server-Side)

These are server-authoritative, so vanilla clients get them too:

Horse Storage Chests

Right-click a tamed horse while holding a chest to give it a 27-slot storage chest. Sneak + right-click with an empty hand to open it. Contents are saved with the horse and drop when it dies.

Two-Player Riding

When a horse already has a rider, a second player can right-click it with an empty hand to hop on as a passenger. The original rider stays in control. This can optionally be restricted to tamed horses.

Both features can be enabled or disabled independently in:

config/simple-horse-qol-server.json

multiRiding
secondRiderRequiresTamed
horseChest

Visual Features (Client-Side)

Configurable in-game through Mod Menu + Cloth Config.

Lowered Head While Riding

Tilts the horse's head down and forward in first person so it obstructs less of your view. Both the lowering amount and neck pivot are configurable.

Fade When Looking Down

The horse gradually becomes transparent as you look further downward, preventing steep viewing angles from being blocked.

Free-Look While Standing Still

Look roughly 90° to either side without turning a stationary horse.

Second Rider Position

Moves the passenger behind the driver instead of rendering both riders in the same position.

Saddlebag Model

Horses carrying a storage chest display a donkey-style saddlebag.

Compatibility

The mod is optional on both client and server.

Server only: Vanilla players can use horse chests and two-player riding. Riders will visually overlap and chested horses won't display saddlebags.
Client only: You get the first-person visual improvements.
Both installed: Full functionality.

There is no hard client dependency. The only networking is a one-way synchronization flag informing modded clients which horses are carrying a chest, so vanilla clients are never affected.

Simple Horse QOL