There are two kinds of fighting between stallions. The sometimes playful jousting between bachelor males that helps them establish their place in the social order, and the far more lethal battles that occur when a serious contender wages a war against a dominant herd stallion. The latter often results in bloody and sometimes life-threatening injuries. The bite inflicted in this image cut clean to the bone and made the roan challenger lame for several months. And although I still see these two stallions run with the same large band of females, there is no doubt who is the boss. The red stallion won the battle in this image, and put the challenger in his place.

I have found the bodies of three dead stallions in the desert over the past three years. I believe that two may have died as a result of these go-for-the-throat fights.