Michael Longton

My name is Michael Longton, I'm a 39 year old beef and sheep farmer and I live in Quernmore, near Lancaster in the north west of England, I have 3 children, the eldest of which is already showing an interest in trialling dogs as she takes one of mine out regularly.

The farm covers 300 hectares, including 100 hectares of hill ground, with 500 breeding sheep and 50 suckler cattle (the sale of the calves is the day before the continental starts!).

In the trialling world I won the English national in 2004 with Monty, from winning there I was invited to compete in the Soldier Hollow in America in 2005, what an experience that was! One week after Soldier Hollow with Montys sire Moss, we managed to get 3rd in the supreme at Ross-on-wye. In 2009 with Monty (bred by Jim Hutchinson) and his brother Don (bred by Ricky Hutchinson) both got into the English team and both made the supreme at Lowther gaining 4th and 8th place respectively.

In the judging side of trials I have had a few great experiences having been to Canada, Germany, Italy, Austria and Poland, as well as those I have also judged the Danish and Swiss nationals, and in 2014 judged the continental in Denmark with Ian Brownlie. Earlier in 2020 I also judged the English nursery final along side Matt Watson.

I am looking forward to judging the continental in Switzerland in 2020 and meeting old friends and new!