IIRC, the reason he didn’t get the job there was because one of her trainers was “jealous” of Nick’s talents. I can certainly see why. Not everyone has the special touch needed to get a horse into a corner and make it stay there.
I will try to quote as many Peronace posts as I can.
This was the beginning;
[quote=“abrant, post:1, topic:344160, full:true”]
So I saw on Facebook the other day that a dressage trainer named Nick Peronace is doing a clinic semi locally to me. His social media presense is…interesting and website a bit light on the details. Nothing on Centerline Scores. Google shows nothing except a weird possibly unrelated scandal with a beef company? Does anyone know anything about this person?
These lies were only part of the scam. Hopefully farms will not be taken in anymore. Obviously experienced trainer/riders won’t be fooled again, however eager beginners and their well meaning trainers and barn owners could fall for the lies ,and end up giving their money to a dishonest guy with poor riding skills and anger issues.
Call me a bullying meanie, but sorry Mr. Peronace I’ll call out anyone who takes people’s money while lying about their credentials.
And don’t start with the “I’ll give a free clinic” garbage. It is obvious that you want access to people’s farms to take pictures and promote yourself, and the more you can associate yourself with legitimate horse people the more you can travel on someone else’s dime or think that maybe you can make money from unsuspecting people in the future.
When you beg to have access to people’s farms to give “free clinics” it is obvious that you are trying to legitimize yourself by association.
Please give it up. No one that knows anything about dressage or any English discipline is fooled by you. Take a look at yourself and see how you like a guy that rips off beginners. You may think that is OK, but it is not.
Hmmm…. Wouldn’t you think that the book would’ve included Nick’s noteworthy accomplishments in showjumping and eventing, especially since— chronologically speaking—they must’ve occurred when he was quite young?
And the list of luminaries with whom he cliniced spawns quite a sordid tale. In the book, Nick claims he never said he rode in any of those clinics, just that he attended or audited. Organizer is miffed, however, as she disagrees and believes Nick embellished his resume. Clinic gets cancelled. Then, one of listed clinicians makes a very public statement disavowing any connection to Nick. That smackdown upsets Nick; he felt like he could’ve cleared up the entire controversy via private communication. Because: Not Nick’s Fault. Also: Swamp Town.
However… If anyone has access to screen shots of the original social media posts, the story comes across just a wee bit different than Nick relates in his book. Imagine that.
That bio is written in a sort of wonky way that indicates the writer is not experienced with horses and doesn’t know/understand the terminology used.
For instance, a show jumper would not state that they jumped “4ft and 5ft courses”. They would say something like, [rider]'s experience includes both Grand Prix show jumping and eventing up to the Preliminary level. Look at any bio for any known equestrian; none say stuff like “jumping 4ft and 5ft courses”. This bio appears written by a layman in an attempt to impress people by specifying the height of fences. [If NP then claims it was written by someone else for him, to that I would say, professionals don’t sign off on non-professional written material about themselves.]
Since I’m not a dressage person, can someone also tell me about his descriptions of Airs Above Ground/Airs above the Ground/airs/Airs/etc. [please choose which ever combo of words and capitalization you like, he provides so many]
Do dressage trainers work on these moves? I always thought they were a Spanish School thing, not a competitive dressage thing. [caveat: I understand NP is in it for the art never, god forbid, the competition, I’m just asking for myself. How typical is it of a top dressage trainer to advertise/do that kind of work?]
Also, is it typical to say that you are “trained up to [x level]”? I have not seen that phraseology before and it strikes me as non-native or at least not standard presentation in an equestrian CV. I guess he needs an alternative b/c he cannot say he has competed up to [x level] or produced horses successfully competed up to [x level]. I’m just not sure, as a hypothetical prospective student, that I know what he’s trying to convey by saying he is “trained up to Grand Prix”. What would trained up to mean as far as a professional credential?
Yep. He really didn’t seem to have the awareness that people might actually check his CV.
“Booked all over the world”. Nope.
“Grand Prix” “Airs” trainer. Nope. Taught an Appy to rear.
Van Olst! Nope, someone here knew them. Van Olst never heard of him.
Dressage Today article he’s asked to write! Nope. They’ve never heard of him.
A book about training non-Warmblood horses in Dressage! Nope. “His” publisher has never heard of him and stated “We are not publishing” any book written by him.
DOD was not aware that he lied about the Appaloosa he claimed to have “trained to Grand Prix” and when they checked, realized that along with having no Grand Prix record, he hadn’t paid for his sponsorship. End of that particular scam.
Offering “free” clinics so people could see how wonderful he was. He doesn’t have a horse or a barn, no qualifications and no insurance, but would like to come to your barn at your expense. No takers.
Nick Peronace using a farm’s address and photos on the internet as his own address. They don’t know who he is and have to make him stop using their address as his own.
The complete failure to pass as a “trainer” when he lied his way into an interview, you can see above, as well as his angry behavior when denied employment.
I don’t like to see nice people conned, lied to, and ripped off. Hopefully the scam is over and no one else will fall for the con.
No, dressage trainers don’t work on these moves. To my knowledge, none have active GP horses also doing Haute Ecole. The average competition horse really can’t do these moves. Pretty much, Iberians who are bred for these moves can do these moves. Not WBs or Appaloosas. They need real talent to sit behind and less priority is on forward gaits. It all comes from bullfighting. Appaloosas were originally bred by Native Americans as range hunting horses. They never had a need to collect. They are currently popular in Western riding. Again, no need to collect. Videos of Chevy show difficulty with real collection. No problem there, he wasn’t built or bred for it.
The thing about his book is how it’s all about his failures. You would think he would take time to recount his successes
You know. The things which qualify him to teach. Basic achievements.
I know he peppers his narrative with claims, but it’s not the same as recounting in detail stories of accomplishments, with how they were achieved. None of it. Just claims, in a sentence 9r two.
I can write a whole chapter on achieving bend in my horse, learning hoe to, and achieving it. So many stories of techniques and successes he could have recounted
They don’t know who he is and have to make him stop using their address as his own.
