Closed to the public, for guests and private events only.
The Saloon is named after a real character & former British Capt. Glynn Michael Turquand of Her Majesty's Cold Stream Guards.
There has been an urban legend attached to the building and Boerne since the 19th century.
The legend says.....
The first game of polo played in America was played just outside Boerne by Englishmen at a retired British officers (Captain Turquand) famous Balcones ranch and the place where the Polo Club gathered & overnighted for celebrations, meetings etc. was at the building she purchased.
If ever there is a case in sports history of giving credit where credit is due it should be given to the English Texans for helping bring polo to America.
In 1876 James Gordon Bennett "the man who brought polo to America" was challenge to a match by English Texans, acknowledged the challenge but, in our opinion, was afraid to accept it. He then proceeded to purchase Texas Ponies and English expertise to stage the “first” polo match in the United States.
The English Texans were present at the dawn of American polo but it was Bennett, the newspaper magnate, who got all the credit.
From the beginning months of American polo as evidenced by the by The English Texans first challenge to Bennett in the spring of 1876. The English Texans attempted to claim their rightful place in the history of American polo but they never got their chance.
The Texas Polo Club from Boerne tried again in 1883 when they Challenged Bennett's New York club but they, again, got no reply to their challenge. They challenged Bennett again in 1885 but they stopped off in New Orleans and the Crescent City was not good to them.
The team ran into trouble at the race tracks in New Orleans and lost all their money. The crowds knew little of Polo and the big hoopla and promotion that the team were promised turned out to be a bust.
Stony Broke, they were forced to sell their ponies and give up their ambitions of showing the New Yorkers and America that it was the English Texans, not Bennett's club, who were the true trendsetters on the American polo field.
Click the links for the old newspaper articles and read the polo story from over a century ago.
Here is a March 1879 newspaper article about August Belmont in San Antonio and surrounding area buying polo ponies........
Here is the front page of the 1879 paper with the date and it too mentions Belmont & polo.