About the "Professor"
 “Professor”
Hanawalt, the Dean of Montana Cowboy College, has
spent 40 years working with horses and cattle in
Montana – as a cowboy, fencing contractor, farrier,
Wilderness guide, muleskinner, horse trainer, ranch
manager, and camp cook. During that time he wasn’t
just doing a job, he was learning, comparing,
analyzing, and searching for the most effective ways
to accomplish every task he undertook on ranches
running from 150 cows to 4000.
After twenty years of making his
living on the ranches of North Central Montana, his
cowboy career was pulled up short by a wreck with a
team of horses - he had broken his back!
Lying there in his hospital bed
he had plenty of time to think. After all those
years making his living with his back, it was now
time to start using his head. Three months later he
was able to sit up long enough to begin classes at
the College of Great Falls.
Kent achieved his Bachelors in
Business Administration the same year that his
oldest daughter graduated from Montana State
University - and spent the fall riding for a large
ranch south of town. Ten years later he received a
Masters in Business Administration from the
University of Montana - and hurried back from the
graduation ceremony to trail the cows to summer
range.
Now deeply involved in the
management and operation of the 110-year old Ellison
ranch, Kent still shoes his own horses – and some of
the neighbors. He uses those horses year-round to
accomplish tasks that are impossible on the modern
“Japanese Quarter Horse”.
Join him now – at the ranch, or
through his writings - and explore the depths of the
romance, adventure, knowledge, and just plain hard
work that go into ranching in the Big Sky Country of
Montana.
Soon to be published are two
books written by Kent: Ain’t This Romantic?!?, and
Cowboy Chronicles. |
