We enjoyed the story about Sydney Nester and Hannah Reinke qualifying and placing at the American Eventing Championships on Sept. 7-9, in Chattahoochee Hills, Ga.

It’s always thrilling to hear about local athletes achieving national recognition.

We wanted to add to the record that Hannah, a 2007 Florence High School graduate, is now ranked No. 1 in the United States in both the B.N. Adult Rider and B.N. Amateur Rider divisions.

An amazing aspect of this story is that Hannah, partly due to the world class instruction available in the Shoals, was able to train the horse, completely unschooled in jumping and dressage, in just one year and succeed on the national level.

Both Hannah and Sydney, member of the newly created Florence Equestrian Team, with coach Candace Wheeler and international equine luminary Jim Graham, are very proud to once again put Florence in the national spotlight for its equestrian talent.

John Reinke and Erika Rosenberg

Florence