Joy Orr is a dressage rider and riding instructor in East Michigan. She grew up on her family’s horse farm where she began her horse obsession riding her parents’ Arabians at the age of 2.  Joy rode western pleasure off and on up until her teens where she was introduced to the world of dressage.

She quickly fell in love with the discipline (much to her father’s disappointment) and enjoyed schooling green horses in the foundations while training her own horse, Sabatha, a black Arabian mare who would be Joy’s greatest teacher.

It wasn’t until after college, Joy met Kyle Rothfus, who would take her to her first horse race. From there on, the passion for Thoroughbreds was set ablaze and she adopted her first OTTB – a little chestnut mare named Fast’N’Firm (lovingly named Astrid) – in 2017. The ups, downs, good, bad, and ugly of their blossoming partnership was the inspiration for Retired Racehorse Radio.

Joy’s life goal is to use horses as an outlet for people who may be struggling with self-confidence and to help find their self-value and love. “I’m a perfectionist, and no one is harder on myself then me. I truly believe my horses have saved me from myself time and time again.”

Joy lives outside Detroit, Michigan with Astrid and her dog, Tova. She works in client relations and instructional design, and enjoys the gym, cooking and baking, and crime shows – not necessarily in that order.

You can follow Joy and Astrid on Instagram @missfitmare or say hi by sending an email to [email protected]