The dynamic behaviors of the hydrostatic slide is changed instantaneously and abruptly during the start-stop, acceleration and deceleration, so magnetorheological（MR） damper is used to suppress tangential vibration of hydrostatic slide. A single-degree-of-freedom vibration model is established, and the dynamic response of the system are studied by the incremental harmonic balance method（IHBM） with arc length as control increment. The simulation results show that it is feasible to suppress the vibration of hydrostatic slide using MR damper. The amplitude-frequency curve changes from hardening type nonlinearity to softening type nonlinearity with the increase of the current of damper slowly, and may lead to hysteresis region narrowing, disappear and secondary jump. With the variation of the frequency ratio, the relationship between amplitude and current of damper is changed significantly. When the frequency ratio is small, the amplitude decreases monotonously with the increase of current. The curve is complex and the jump phenomenon occurs with the large frequency ratio. Finally, the experimental results show that the MR damper can suppress the vibration of hydrostatic slide effectively.