Get on down to Cowtown

A bareback rider loses control and goes over the head of the horse in the Novice Bareback event at the Calgary Stampede.

The pen gate swings open, the rodeo clowns scatter, and a bucking, kicking bronco with steely eyed rider explodes from the chute. If the cowboy is good enough and can sit tight for eight seconds, he may go on to win the real big money during the 10 crazy days of the Calgary Stampede.

If it's tough for the cowboys it's nerve-racking for the spectators. The danger, the dust, the smell of leather, the adrenaline, the fear and the excitement of this most extreme sporting event will stay with you forever.

If the bronco riding isn't stressful enough, at twilight, a hush settles around the ground as four teams of whinnying, straining horses and creaking chuckwagons are driven into the arena.

Harnesses jingle, impatient hooves scoop the dust, the klaxon sounds, and all hell breaks loose as 16 wild-eyed horses and four rattling wagons, flanked by a bevy of flailing outriders, explode in an all-out dash around the arena.

The thundering hooves, rumbling wheels and crack of king whips heighten the sensation of danger and watchers brace themselves for the inevitable disaster which never - well, rarely - happens.

These races started when camp cooks would race their mobile kitchens, or chuckwagons, to claim the best campsite for the night.

Professional rodeo riders from all over the world are drawn to the Calgary Stampede to compete in the events. They hope to win a little notoriety and more than a little money. The winners pocket C$50,000 ($66,000) - it's winner takes all - for each of the two major events of bareback and bull riding.

Throughout the entire stampede some 400 cowboys compete for a total purse of C$1.6 million ($2.12 million).

If you're keen enough to make an early start head to Fluor Rope Square, downtown, for a free Chuckwagon Breakfast of flapjacks and bacon served hot off the griddle from the tailboard of a chuckwagon.

The square is also the mid-morning venue for marching bands, dancers, singers, fiddlers, clowns, friendly mascots and an old-fashioned gunfight. Then, Stetson tilted just right, head out to Stampede Park.

Blue jeans, western boots and Stetsons are standard dress but you can acquire the bare minimum, a Stampede belt buckle which slips over your belt, and perhaps a Stetson, from a Western store in town.

Stampede Park has more to see and do than you will ever be able to manage.

On the Midway are rides on Ferris wheels, light shows, marching bands, parades, an Indian Village, cotton candy and all the fun of the fair. The Calgary Exhibition and Stampede is in fact, an animal and produce show with more than a dozen pure-bred livestock shows, a steer classic, heavy horses, pet size miniatures, a blacksmith's competition and the auctioneers championship.

In the main arena, the afternoon rodeo activity kicks off with the crazy rodeo clowns' wild cow milking event, wild horse races, the cutting horse championships and "no boys allowed" barrel racing.

But it's not all dust, sweat and leather. When the sun goes down, singers, dancers and musicians back up world-class country performers for a two-hour show on the stage beneath the stars. This spectacle is capped off with a huge fireworks display.

At night, you can mingle with the cowboys and cowgals at the official stampede watering hole, Ranchman's Dance Hall, Honky Tonk, County and Western bar and chow place on the Macleod Trail.

If the excitement of the day has made you hungry for a steak or ribs, Alberta beef is just about the best in the world, and the town has numerous steak houses and Tex-Mex restaurants.

Not much work gets done as locals don their Stetsons and whoop it up with the visitors. Calgarians are the friendliest folk you'll find anywhere. It's no wonder that visitors to the Canadian Rockies often head for "Cowtown" for a few days in July.