| Rules of the Game
(at San Patricio) |
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1.) No knives or guns allowed; carrying of ropes is frowned upon.
2.) If a player is unhorsed, it is against the rules to run over him or belabor him with mallets until he has remounted.
3.) If the ball goes out of Lincoln County, a rider is sent to a high peak to fire a gun and light a signal fire rallying the players to the ranch house for a round of tequila copitas.
(Photo by Peter Stackpole,
LIFE Magazine Photographer) |
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Henriette & Peter Hurd Outside
the Polo House, 1966
(Photo by Dwight McNally) |
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Michael & Peter entertain after a San Patricio Polo Club Benefit to raise money for the Roswell Symphony, 1968.
(Roswell Daily Record) |
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Peter Hurd, 1970 (Photo by John Young) |
| Happy 80th Birthday
Peter Wyeth Hurd~March 22nd |
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Peter Hurd with Peter Wyeth Hurd(First Son of Peter & Henriette) |
| Recipe of the Month:
Chile Verde Masa Albondigas
(Green Chile Doughballs) |
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2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup chopped green chile
1 lb. pork sausage, uncooked
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp. onion salt
1 tsp. garlic salt
Mix all ingredients together well.
Roll mixture into 1 inch balls.
Place on a greased cookie sheet
Bake at 425 degrees for 35 min.
(Makes 2 dozen.) |
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If you recently joined our newsletter family, you've missed a few! Click on the photo above to link to our Newsletter Archive page. |
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Hwy 70, Exit at Peter Hurd Loop
(Approx. 20 Miles East of Ruidoso, 50 Miles West of Roswell)
PO Box 100
105 La Rinconada Ln.
San Patricio, NM 88348
1-575-653-4331
1-800-658-6912
Michael Hurd, Owner
Tiffanie Owen, Director
Judy Petersen, Gallery Assistant
Albert Chavez, Ranch Foreman
Gerardo Medina & Julian Marquez
Hard-Workin' Ranch Dudes
Maria Guillen, Head Housekeeper
Content and images on this site
are the property of Michael Hurd,
Tiffanie Owen and the Hurd-
La Rinconada Gallery/Sentinel Ranch. Reproduction fo the content on this site is prohibited without the express written consent of the the owner. All rights reserved.
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 Happy St. Patrick's Day from San Patricio!
This issue of our Online Newsletter marks our 1 year anniversary and we are proud to have our newsletter reaching over 1,000 friends and clients. Thank you all for your interest and compliments.
In honor of the namesake of our little village, this is a very St. Patricky newsletter. But this issue also honors the tradition of polo, brought here by Peter Hurd in 1938. The original polo field occupied a mostly flat piece of land on the ranch, the site of a pre-Columbian village or camp. Pottery sherds and stone implements littered the grassy surface...along with a lot of inconveniently placed juniper and cactus that required removal before any polo could commence.
As polo became an institution in San Patricio, hosting military and civilian teams from Roswell, El Paso, Ft. Bliss and Juarez, the team needed official uniforms and colors. It seemed only natural to Peter that their uniforms should be adorned with the shamrock and their colors should be white and kelly green.
The new polo field, which still exists today, was leveled and planted in 1960. Where the Gallery now stands, there was once a cantina and casino, a site that provided much revelry for the soldiers from Fort Stanton and many of the colorful participants in the Lincoln County War. Peter Hurd often found gold buttons from the cavalry officer's coats around this site.
The little San Patricio Polo Club received official recognition from the US Polo Association in 1964. Three generations of Hurd men played polo, beginning with Peter, then his son Michael and grandson, Pedrito. Many remember the excitement of hooves thundering across the floor of the Hondo Valley, and although the winners and losers of these games have long been fogotten, the memory of those days lives on in the art of Peter Hurd. |
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A Summer Game at San Patricio by Peter Hurd |
"Anyone who comes along with the idea of getting up a little polo game will find us ready, willing and waiting. Pete and Pino and Billy and I have played successful polo in every kind of weather there is here except one. One day a hailstorm came up while we were playing; hailstones big as polo balls commenced falling and we couldn't tell which was which. Had to give up." ~Tom Babers (Quoted in an article by Peter Hurd for Sports Illustrated, 1953.)
Print Price: $700
Edition: Limited to 500
Size: 22 1/2" x 35"
Signed: Lower Right |
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A Practice Game by Peter Hurd |
"Our place at San Patricio was little more than a camp in the '30s. The two old adobe houses on the property were barely habitable, so much of this time my wife and children were in Pennsylvania. With the polo infection racing in my veins, I found myself selecting my cook always with less interest in his cooking than in whether or not he could ride like hell and was willing to risk his neck on our polo field" (Peter Hurd autobiography).
Price: $4,800 (Only One Framed Print Currently Available)
Size: 25 1/2" x 37 1/4" (Image), 36" x 47 1/2" (Framed)
Edition: #131 of 250
Signed: Lower Right |
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Polo Gone Wild |
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Cow Pony Polo |
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("Windy" Disclaimer: The Hurd & Wyeth families are known for their bawdy sense of humor, so it was really only a matter of time before a "windy" would emerge reflecting this tradition. We would like to warn our readers that this "windy" is not intended to offend...however, it is for immature audiences only.)
In the early days at Sentinel Ranch, there was a lot of work that needed to be done to the ranch house before the living conditions were acceptable for Henriette and the children. Peter's good friend, Eric Knight, whom he had met in Chadds Ford in the 20's, agreed to help Peter get his ranch operation started. Eric was an English-American novelist and author of such books as Lassie Come Home and The Flying Yorkshireman. He had been hired by Fox Studios as a screenwriter and was more than happy to leave Hollywood for the simplicity and solitude of San Patricio.
Eric Knight was an enthusiastic contributor to the founding of polo in San Patricio, helping to remove rocks and cactus and to level the gently rolling hillside that became the first polo field. He was also a co-conspirator in the scrounging of used polo balls from N.M.M.I. The men discovered that the polo balls worked just fine when soaked in water, dried and repainted.
It was a hot, summer morning before a Sunday game in San Patricio, when a Bonnie & Clyde style car with Oklahoma plates unexpectedly pulled up next to the ranch house. Eric Knight was using a push mower to mow the little bit of lawn that Peter had cultivated around the house. Wearing his English-style cap and smoking a pipe, Eric barely looked up as the somewhat overdressed Okies crawled out of the car.
A bit surprised at the lack of acknowledgement, the driver of the car called out, "Say there...does Pete Hurd live here?" Eric nodded and continued pushing the mower and puffing on his pipe.
"Pete Hurd the famous artist?" asked the man again. Eric nodded as he turned his mower for another pass at the lawn.
A bit frustrated, the man followed Eric Knight and asked a bit more fervently, "Well, if Pete Hurd the famous artist lives here, where's he at?"
With no emotion, Eric Knight stopped mowing, removed his pipe from his mouth and said, "Well Sir, if you must know, he soaked his balls all night and now he's out back painting them white."
The Okies looked at each other in horror, squeezed back into their car and disappeared in a cloud of dust, never to be seen at the ranch again.
(Postscript: Peter Hurd's good friend, Eric Knight, was killed January 14th, 1943 when his transport plane was shot down by a German submarine off the coast of British Guiana. Major Knight was on a mission for the Army Information Branch and was bound for Cairo. Acting on a break in security, the Germans were lying in wait for President Roosevelt, who was planning to fly the same route on his way to the Casablanca conference. Unfortunately, the Germans were a day early and mistook Knight's flight for FDR's. Eric Knight was awarded the Legion of Merit medal posthumously in 1944 by command of General Eisenhower. He was honored by his polo friends with an annual tournament, the Eric Knight Memorial.) |
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May, 1972 Michael & Peter Hurd, second and third from left. (Photo by Dwight McNally)
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