My young son named this big stallion. We watched him for months in his role as the powerful force over a large band of mares and colts. Many of our photos show him facing off with other large herd stallions, but we never saw him back away from another male.

On a trip a few months ago, I noticed that he was not with his band of mares. Big Red, another big stallion was now at the power position once held by Shaggy. Shaggy was nowhere. Most of the 200-plus horses were in the same broad sagebrush flat, and the big brown horse was not among them, I wondered what had become of him. He would not have allowed Red to take over. And yet he was not there anywhere.

This mystery bothered me for several weeks. On the next trip into the desert, I found the answer.