Travis Tryan's Precious Speck, best known as "Walt" and a four-time AQHA/PRCA Team Roping Heading Horse of the Year, died April 24 of an aneurysm while warming up for morning slack at the Clovis Rodeo in Clovis, Calif. The American Quarter Horse was 20.

"They had a special bond, and even in those final moments Walt seemed to be looking out for Travis," said Tryan's wife, Hillary. "Travis could have been badly injured in the fall, but Walt laid him down on the ground."

"Walt was gone almost immediately after that," Travis said. "It all just happened really fast."

Walt, who was buried under an oak tree at Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) team roper Bert McGill’s Annadale Equine Center in nearby Sanger, Calif., had been voted the American Quarter Horse Association/PRCA Team Roping Heading Horse of the Year in each of the last three years and also in 2003. He won the award a year ago despite missing nearly two months of competition while recovering from a life-threatening bout of colic. Surgeons at the Idaho Equine Hospital in Nampa, Idaho, cut out a fatty tumor the size of a grapefruit