Another advantage of hunting quail on horseback is you can hunt any land the entire season, regardless of the weather. Often quail will covey-up on the edges of soybean fields after the beans have been cut. And if you're hunting river-bottom swamp land, those fields become muddy bogs quickly, making walk hunting for quail impossible.

Instead of having to crawl through thorny thickets to reach the birds, the horse will carry you to within 15 yards and allow you to easily dismount and boldly walk to the quail. When the quail come up, stay on one bird before you worry about shooting at another one.

Never, shoot off the back of a horse - which is basically a TV stunt. When sitting on a horse: you can't get into the proper position to take a shot at quail; you're limited in the amount of area you can cover when you try to aim, because you only can turn about 25 to 35 degrees on either side of the horse's head; and about 50 percent of the time, the quail will fly in a direction that you can't shoot.

Too, horses don't like having guns go off over their heads. Although most quail-hunting horses aren't spooked by the sounds of guns, the blasts may damage their hearing over time, if you hunt from the saddle. The horse is a mode of transportation for the quail hunter to help him be more successful.