Joy began riding at 6 years old.  She rode and showed extensively as a junior and started training horses and amateurs at 18.  Joy broke young horses and retrained thoroughbreds off the track.  This early work has provided a very strong horsemanship foundation.  Joy has a special skill for understanding the needs of younger horses or horses that have problems.  Joy worked as an assistant trainer on the East Coast with Melissa Morell.  She returned to the West Coast and worked as an assistant trainer for several trainers in Northern California including Diane Yeager and Chris Borba.  Joy founded Cantus Farm in 2000 at Sunny Hill Farm in Walnut Creek.

Joy's style of training is to work closely with the amateur rider and horse as a team.  She seeks to establish confidence in each rider and focuses extensively on basic fundamentals of riding.   As a rider herself, she spends time individually with each horse to better understand the temperament of each animal.  Her knowledge and understanding of the horse allows her to help each rider with unique challenges they face.