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HomeRP StoreContact Us
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ABOUT US: Staff The ReactorPanel staff is a lively, diverse group of people who share a commitment to creating the best saddle available for horse and rider. Feel free to get in touch with any of us with specific questions or requests.
Over the past fifty years, as the use of the horse has changed from essential (military, transportation, farming) to sport, saddle designs have changed to favor the comfort of the rider. It is only with the advent of saddle fit testing systems combined with modern investigative therapies that reveal pain - sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic - in our horses that we have begun to assess the impact of the saddle on the horse, and to make improvements in the basic design. I believe that the saddle, as the interface between horse and rider, is one of the most important elements in creating harmony between horse and rider, and that its proper fit is often sadly overlooked. Horses will suffer - sometimes greatly - on our behalf without complaint. The horse was not designed to be ridden, but once provided with a pain-free experience, the ability of the horse to perform to his full potential can be astonishing and profound. I have been a rider since 1972, involved primarily in combined training, then hunters and jumpers, and most recently dressage (though I have completed one 50-mile endurance ride). I have taken courses in saddle fit, studied copiously on my own, worked with vets, innovators and bodyworkers in the U.S., Canada and England, and of course with my favorite teachers: the horses themselves. I have learned that the very best fitters hold the same core beliefs about saddle fit, design, and the analysis of fit. I am committed to putting more science and less guesswork into the saddle fitting process, and believe with modern tools to assess fit that this is a realistic goal for all riders.
Years later, ReactorPanel and Lisa crossed paths. For the first time, Lisa understood what it felt like to have an excellent fit for both the horse and rider, and how much less work they'd both have to do as a result! Currently Lisa competes on her endurance horse favoring 100 mile distance while working to improve her riding skills by training her younger horse in dressage. Lisa, also a Speech Pathologist, is responsible for overseeing RP training and education, fitting, and support. She's also a certified (human) massage therapist with interest and knowledge in equine anatomy and physiology.
Like other endurance riders, Lynne spent a great deal of time and effort on the Great Saddle Hunt. Unlike most others, she started by buying an Ortho-Flex saddle, expecting total happiness for both horse and rider. Her mare felt otherwise. Four saddles later, she was unhappy, though her horse was relatively happy at that moment. However, Lynne didn't want to settle. It was then that she discovered ReactorPanel, the solution for her and her horses.
Reagan wasn’t born in the saddle, so to speak, but from the time she was three until this very moment, Reagan’s done her best to never dismount. After many years working as a groom and then professional hunter/jumper trainer for an ‘A’ rated show barn, Reagan decided to get a ‘real’ job and use her education. Thankfully, her ‘real’ jobs followed a course that led her back to the equestrian industry. In 2002, Reagan opened her own marketing and copywriting business, WriteTack Communications. She enjoys working for a variety of companies like ReactorPanel who have great products and services to offer. In addition, Reagan teaches hunter/jumpers and basic dressage to a handful of really fun students and horses. Reagan discovered ReactorPanel when she met Carmi at the barn. After one ride in Carmi’s Esprit model, Reagan was hooked on the lightness and cadence it encouraged in her horse Sullivan. Reagan has since joined the ReactorPanel team as a marketing consultant and copywriter.
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Despite spending more than twenty years thinking
I was an extraordinarily well informed rider and stable manager, I
came to realize - first by being bucked off and later through exhaustive
study - that a number of modern saddles cause problems for horses.
As I learned that ill-fitting saddles cause significant pain, restrict
performance, and cause trauma, damage, and atrophy, I have devoted
myself to understanding saddles and saddle design, and to educating
riders about the importance of proper saddle fit.
Lisa has been riding anything that resembled
an equine since age three. In her late 20s, she got her first horse,
and they went through five saddles. After that, Lisa became obsessed
with saddles—how they could help rather than hinder the horse
and rider in motion.
A life-long horse person and rider,
Lynne didn't get her own horse until the age of 31. After teaching
handicapped riding for nearly seven years, she decided she wanted to
go farther and faster—a desire that led to endurance riding. 
Born on a Greek isle, Chia is no regular
ball of canine fluff. She is a gorgeous, petite, life-loving companion
who accompanies Carmi nearly everywhere she goes—including saddle
fittings. Weighing in at about five pounds, Chia keeps careful guard
of the ReactorPanel warehouse, alerting employees with non-stop barking
when anyone at all (including another employee) has entered the premises.
Of course, her primary responsibility is to preside over the RP office
while looking beautiful. If you want to know her fashion secrets, you
can send her an adoring email message, and perhaps she will share one
with you. 