The 104 color photographs in this book offer an intimate and revealing portrait of the cowboy, whose real nature has long been obscured by myth and make-believe. Captured by Allard's camera is the true spirit of the American West: cowboys splattered with mud after a spill from a bucking saddle-bronc, rodeo queens applying vaseline to their teeth before a beauty contest, a lone rider galloping across a rugged landscape of sagebrush and mountains. Rarely has a photographer been able to get closer to his subjects, and rarely has one been blessed with a more spectacular natural setting.