Robyn Greyling Animal Behaviourist

I specialise in training animals for co operative behaviour, and am experienced with a variety of animals but prefer to work with marine mammals and horses.

I was born in Port Elizabeth and have been around horses all my life. I ride horses in many disciplines and even as a young girl was riding and working with problem horses.

As a teenager I entered into competitive dog training and my dog represented the region in the dog jumping team for four consecutive years.

In 1989 I started my career with marine mammals and seabirds being employed as a trainer at the Port Elizabeth Museum, now known as Bayworld. During my time as a Marine Curator I trained dolphins and seals and worked with sharks, turtles and birds. The highlight of my career was preparing and training the two dolphins for relocation to Hong Kong in 2009. I headed up the training team, traveling with the animals and then returned as a consultant. It was one of the longest marine mammal transports in the world and my experience at Bayworld was invaluable in ensuring the two dolphins arrived relaxed, calm and acclimatised quickly.

In 2003 I was awarded my Equine Behaviour Consultant accreditation. Since then I have worked with a number of problem horses using my own methods of combining positive reinforcement and natural horse instinctive behaviour to bring horses around to be willing partners with their owners. 
I enjoy sharing my knowledge and training methods with others and my workshops have been evolving since 2004. My goal is to show owners that there are many ways of training; including clicker training and positive reinforcement. This encourages riders to re-evaluate the way they think about training. With clicker training the horses’ motivation changes and they quickly become willing partners in the training session and ready for any challenge.

I also have an interest in trick training and liberty work with my horses, spending three months with Heath and Krissy Harris in Australia in 2007. Heath and Chrissy own Harris Entertainment, training horses for film and TV work and working with them was an incredible experience. Working a horse at liberty is one of the hardest things to do, as it relies on really clear communication and a strong relationship with the horse. This is why I enjoy the challenge of liberty work so much.

I also have a small pinto stud, breeding good all round coloured ponies with good conformation, temperament and hardiness. I do occasionally have well trained horses and ponies for sale. Just call with your requirements.