Willfully Guided: Remembering Smokums Playlena, Horse of a Lifetime

In 2002 I was 24 years old with cow horse stars in my eyes. I’d shown futurity horses for two years and was hungry to learn more, so I made plans to visit my friend Kim Peede who had taken up with California reined cow horse competitor Shawn Renshaw. I loaded up my horses and headed south to spend a month improving my skills. While I was there, Shawn told me I could “exercise that bridle horse over there but be careful because he’s a little broncy.” 

Born on the Wright Ranch, Playboy was by the great Smokum Oak and out of a Freckles Playboy daughter. He was as plain as could be, hammer-headed, and without a marking on him except his brands. Shawn bought Playboy from the Wrights and showed him in the Non-Pro Futurity placing 3rd in 1998. Shawn’s buddy Jeff Wenig bought Playboy and took him on to championships in multiple NRCHA derbies and hackamore classes. He’d mostly rested that season and was coming back, cold back and all, to get sold in Reno at the futurity. I rode him quite a bit while I was a guest at the ranch.

Playboy was the nicest horse I’d ever ridden and I was obviously in love, but there was no way I could convince my parents to buy him for me. Jeff and I had spent a lot of time together over the previous year and had become good friends. He sold me Playboy for an embarrassingly low price and let me pay him off with his earnings. I vowed I would never sell him. 

I loaded him in my trailer and went straight to the Chilliwack Superslide in Canada. We won all the NRHA Non-Pro Reining Divisions, and the NP Bridle. I had never shown one-handed before that show, had never shown in a NRHA class, and had never shown a horse I hadn’t trained. It was like the whole world opened for me the first time Playboy and I walked through the gate to compete. I paid him off with his earnings in the first six months.

We went on for the next five seasons. In 2005 he won the NRCHA Supreme Reined Cow Horse award. In 2006 we won our first saddle in the NWRCHA Non-Pro Bridle and in 2007 we won both the NWRCHA Open Bridle and Non-Pro Bridle year-end saddles and the prestigious Paul Dice Memorial. We had tough cows, stiff competition, and bad ground. We got tangled up with a cow in our reins, breaking the bit in his mouth, and he never quit on me. 

That same year I was leading the nation in the Non-Pro Bridle. Playboy had started to get sore in his right front, so we took him to Pilchuck for an MRI. He had calcifications on the ligament below his coffin bone in two places; they thought it could be managed with shoeing and anti-inflammatories. All I had to do was show in a Hermiston show, and then hit the World Show the next year and we’d have a solid shot at the world and national titles. 

At Hermiston we drew a wild cow and as always, he packed me at warp speeds forgetting about any pain he had. As we came out of a turn, the cow went down in front of us, and Playboy stumbled over it, kept his feet, and saved us both. I came out of the arena shook up and it washed over me. Playboy wouldn’t know if we won the world title, he just kept going. I couldn’t stand knowing he might hurt just so I could chase this dream. I took him home, pulled his shoes, and turned him out for a year. That was the last time I ever showed him.

In 2013 Lee Paparoa and I married and for the last 13 years Playboy has been our family’s champion. He was the first horse my three children sat on, and he took that job as seriously as showing. He spent his nights in his stall and every morning was turned loose to roam around the barn and property at his leisure. He loved to visit all the horses and cause mischief. 

Playboy has been my grounding, my home, for almost 23 years. He gave me courage and taught me how to really trust another being.

It was a day that had to come no matter how hard I wished it wouldn’t. I came home from some errands and went to check on the horses. He was roaming free and as I walked towards the barn, I saw him standing by the arena gate. He staggered and I knew. I rushed to him as he went down, held his head, stroked his face, and told him how much I loved him. I sat there and comforted him in his last moments. He waited for me—I believe that. He’s been waiting for me to guide him for my whole adult life, but all along he was showing me the way.

Playboy shaped who I am as a wife, a mother, a businesswoman, a competitor, and a friend. He was everything a good cow horse should be, and the world is dimmer with him gone. People say how lucky he was to end up with me, but I was the lucky one. I’m deeply sad, and deeply grateful. Rest in Peace my friend. You earned it.

See this article in the February 2025 Online Digital Edition:

February 2025