‘THE SPORT OF KINGS’
What began as a simple conversation at a family gathering in 2024 blossomed into last weekend’s inaugural Spanish Pass Polo Club two-day tournament, hosted by Richard and Leith Negley on their converted roping arena — now a legitimate polo arena.
Six teams showed up to play Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 at the arena in north Boerne on the Negley’s Spanish Pass Road property, hence the club’s name. The action drew a crowd of 40-50 people, seemingly equally divided among those familiar with the sport and those just enjoying their day on the hill watching the action for the first time.
Last fall, during a family get-together, Leith Negley spoke with her nephew, a Marine who played on the All-Military Polo Team. During a chat about the Negley’s land and property, the roping arena came up.
“He said, ‘Aunt Leith, you know what you should do with that old roping arena? You need to turn it into a polo arena,’” she said.
As the night wore on, she and her husband began to consider making the idea a reality.
“We don’t have one (arena polo field) up here, so I thought about it and said, ‘OK.’ And here we are, one year later,” she said, adding, “If you build it, they will come.”
Negley — who does not play polo — referred to herself as “a facilities manager.”
“OK, I am the enabler of this group, to have fun,” she said.
But before the fun, there was work to be done. In what advocates said was a stroke of fortune, the available space met the 300foot by 150-foot dimension required by the United States Polo Association for arena polo.
“I had to reconfigure the ends, put up the goals and the metal panels to catch the balls,” she said.
Negley housed 32 of the players’ horses on her property and arranged with a neighbor to rent a barn to house another 27.
Negley said arena polo makes for better entertainment, as witnessed by the reaction from the several dozen fans seated on the grassy rise overlooking the field. “What’s nice about arena polo is it’s slower; it’s more viewer- friendly because it’s only three-on-three, and not four-onfour,” she said. “Men, women and kids can all play together. We have a family playing out there today.”
One of the weekend participants was Mark Osburn, who began playing polo in college at Texas Tech University, sat out for a while, but recently returned to the sport.
He competes for Bar-Spur, a team named after his family’s company, Bar-Spur Co. LLC, a dirt construction firm in Eden, about 2 ½ hours northwest of Boerne.
Mark and his 13-year-old son, Gus, were dressed out in the red-and-white jerseys of Bar-Spur, enjoying the opportunity to play in the inaugural Polo Club matches.
He met his wife, Amanda, playing polo at Texas Tech. But on Saturday, Mark and Gus suited up in opposition to a team Amanda played on — the two males mentioning that Bar-Spur came out on top.
“Arena polo is a lot of fun, it’s what I started out playing. It’s more of a short-and-quick game (games last 7½ minutes),” Osburn said. “It’s physical and involves a lot of different things when you’re out there playing. But I’ve played a lot more arena than I have field in my life.”
Bill Askins, one of the club’s founders, referenced Cecil Smith of Boerne, the highest-ranked polo player in the United States for more than 30 years.
“In fact, the foundation of Texas polo was right here,” Askins said. The inaugural Spanish Pass tournament was dubbed the Cecil Smith Memorial Cup.
Askins said an original field — “where the English played polo here in 1876” — is not far away, off Boerne Stage Road.
“The old-timers all know Cecil Smith … and remember him and honor him,” Negley said.
“Cecil Smith was one of the ones who introduced the Texas polo pony to the rest of the world,” Askins said.
Negley said they will gather later, assess the weekend, and begin to lay the foundation for more tourneys to come.
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