Ok, I’ve written the review. Don’t know when it might be up on Amazon.
I should have copied/pasted it.
Aaand – it’s up! Who wants this copy? I’ll include a Rosary in the package to ward off the eeeevil.
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Have you fumigated your mind and purged it from your home yet?
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You’ll also need to burn sage and sprinkle salt and holy water around the perimeter of your house and property to prevent the evil inherent in the book from remaining.
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Can’t find it…?
I think all reviews of any product get a cursory vetting before being posted. So it may be a few hours or a day.
On a side note, I was watching People’s Court yesterday (an occasional guilty pleasure) and there was a case about someone’s self-published book on Amazon. According to the contract, each time a copy of a book is sold, the proceeds are split 70/30. The 30% “royalty” goes to the author; Amazon keeps the rest as compensation for printing, marketing, etc.
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I’m sorry, I meant I can’t find the book, on Amazon.
I assume this is the review.
1.0 out of 5 stars To quote Dorothy Parker…
Reviewed in the United States 
on February 14, 2023
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”
I’ve studied and ridden dressage for more years than Mr. Peronace has been alive. I’ve witnessed a few abusive instructors and trainers, but Mr. Peronace displays the persistence of Wiley Coyote in finding such people to abuse him over and over again. At a certain point one must conclude it can’t be all bad luck.
He claims that names of people and places were changed to protect himself from lawsuits and/or protecting someone’s identity, etc. That he was not able to get in touch with some “at the time of publishing”. Excuse me, a self-published book does not have a publishing deadline. Take all the time you want to contact people. My guess is, he didn’t want some people to know about the book before it was published, because, to quote Samuel Clemens, “Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness”.
In the “Foreward”, “Ms. Marchman” opines that Mr. Peronace’s detractors “have some sort of issue with men”. Highly unprofessional, especially in the light of Mr. Peronace’s evident “issue” with women, particularly in positions of authority.
I highly doubt that F-bombs were thrown about at a children’s riding camp as is claimed, but I wasn’t there. I doubt the story about the security guard threatening young Master Peronace at Dressage at Devon. Samuel Clemens again, “The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that didn’t happen”.
The poorly reproduced photos display little of Mr. Peronace’s prowess as a trainer of horses. The sainted Chevy, his first horse (and who doesn’t have lovely memories of their first horse?) displays no Levade or Pesade. For those ‘airs’, the horse must be balanced with his hind legs well under him. Dear Chevy is not balancing over his hind legs. This is simply “rearing up”. His mare “Carpathia” in the photos from his disastrous show, display a horse that’s not using her hind end and back the way one would expect at Third or Fourth Level. Good enough for Training or First, but not beyond that. He does, however, display a nice crossing over of the hind legs in a half-pass on this same mare. So there’s that. Many of his display a fine position at halt. I can do that, too!
Later in the book, he pays lip service to Classical training, which is the foundation of all good riding. In this I agree with him wholeheartedly. It’s hard to find good practitioners of that art, though. I don’t think in all his adventures he found a good teacher that he’d study with. OK, there was that one guy, but they had a political argument and that spoiled THAT. If a trainer has the knowledge you desire, sometimes you have to overlook personal differences.
Classical riding is not something one learns without guidance and an eye on the ground. Even the greats like Reiner (spelled “Renier” in this book) Klimke had an “eye on the ground”. He advocates use of draw reins, and while they have their uses, they have no part in correct “classical” riding. it’s one of the “tricks” Mr. Peronace so despises in earlier parts of the book.
His editors did him no favors. There are numerous misspellings, overuse and misuse of apostrophes and redundancies. Mr. Peronace admits he presents the book as 'conversational", but if this had been an actual conversation, I’d have left after the introduction.
I consider it an act of Penance for my many sins that I read this book cover to cover.
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A very thoughtful, honest review that uses examples from the book to support your viewpoint.
This is, perhaps, one of my favorite passages:
My guess is, he didn’t want some people to know about the book before it was published, because, to quote Samuel Clemens, “Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness”.
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And now we await the huffy outraged rebuttal…
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Yes, more claims of a fake review. But hey, at least he’ll profit enough from @ThreeFigs’s purchase to buy another box of Minute Rice!
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He’s likely still trying to pay off the publishing though.
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Is there a fee, from Amazon, for the “publishing”? I thought since it was print-on-demand, and the author was responsible for providing an edited proof and any art/images, that Amazon got money only when copies were sold. That’s why each sale is split 70/30, with the bigger portion going to Amazon. But I could be wrong. I haven’t read the entire contract.
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I’ll take it if you haven’t got someone lined up already.
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I’ll be inline for a copy as well. I’ll happily pass it along after a re-read and will light candles each night it is in my home.
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I think I’ve got some sage and we have the Green Tara so hopefully she can limit this churn of suffering…
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Is this because:
- You’re a glutton for punishment
- You’re in need of some horse-related amusement
- You just want to see if the book is as bad and outrageous as you remember
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PM me with your address and I’ll get it out to you, LilRanger.
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Done! Thanks ThreeFigs
#4. you use this in place of Zquill.
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