I am very certain that different herds are run in different ways. We have seen herds with a single dominant leader (Ali's herd, the spiketails in LBT 8), we know of one herd sort of split up while the leader was wondering of with parts of the herd (Bron's herd), and we have seen herds mixed of different kinds (the farwalkers in LBT 7) where perhaps there is no leader at all but rather a kind of democracy (same as was said about the Great Valley inhabitants journey to the valley in the LBT 7 flashback). Finally there were these yellowbellies of LBT 13. If memory doesn't fail me some special wisdom (or awareness of the whereabouts) was ascribed to one of the yellowbellies, but he did not come across as much of a leader in charge of this rampant group of individuals.