Red Dead Online – How to Duck on Horseback

Horses are a key aspect of Red Dead Online, and you’ll no doubt end up in your fair share of horseback shootouts while playing Rockstar’s online western. Thankfully, there is a way to duck while you’re on your horse, protecting you from gunshots and making you a much harder target to hit. You can’t do it right off the bat, but this guide will tell you all you need to know about ducking on horseback.

How to Duck on Your Horse in Red Dead Online

To duck on your horse, press the jump button (Square on PS4, X on Xbox, Space Bar on PC, or X on Stadia) while aiming. This is the same maneuver as diving in combat while on foot. Also like diving, you have to hold a direction using the left analog stick, either left or right, for ducking to work.

Just so we’re clear, you have to choose a direction with the left analog stick and press the jump button while aiming in order to dive.

Before you can use this ability, however, you’ll need to do quite a bit of bounty hunting work. The pamphlet that unlocks ducking is a reward for reaching Rank 14 in the Bounty Hunter role, so you’ll have to wrangle up a pretty substantial number of targets to acquire it. Our Bounty Hunter guide should be enough to get you started in the bounty hunting business if you haven’t spent any time with the role yet. A bounty hunting license will set you back 15 Gold Bars if you haven’t gotten your hands on one yet.

Like a lot of things in Red Dead Online, ducking on horseback can be a bit buggy for some people. Some people have reported it only working against other players and not NPCs, while others haven’t had any success getting the move to trigger at all. Hopefully, you won’t run into any issues, but if you’ve met the requirements but just aren’t able to duck for some reason, try selecting and reading the pamphlet in your inventory to make sure the move properly unlocked. If it still doesn’t work, try finding a new online session.

Ducking on horseback is an incredibly helpful ability to have if you happen to get jumped by griefers in the open world, so it’s well worth the work it takes to level up as a Bounty Hunter.