"Yeehaaaw!"

If you’ve ever thought that wearing a broad-brimmed hat and hollering yeehaa and yahoo at a rodeo might be fun, then Alberta’s the place to find out.

Rodeos are the high point of the annual social calendar in many Albertan towns, but the largest of them all is in Calgary.

The Calgary Stampede runs for 10 days in July when even the town’s office workers will dress in cowboy boots, Stetson and bootlace tie and address each other in bastardised cowboy slang. The rodeo is the main focus, but there are all sorts of other country-and-western goings on – blacksmith championships, line dancing competitions and livestock shows – and events are on virtually around the clock, starting with the daily free pancake breakfast.