Lorraine Gronau was on a horse before she was born.
“My mother rode when she was pregnant with me,” said the Sewickley Heights resident as she gathered eight hounds from atop her horse, Comet, during a fox drag hunt clinic hosted by the Sewickley Hunt Club and the Sewickley Hounds Foundation on Aug. 2. “This is such a cool sport, and it’s got a cool history.”
For more than a century, that history has thundered through Sewickley Heights and Sewickley Hills, where riders follow hounds across miles of terrain in search of not a fox, but a scent. The Sewickley Hunt Club, the oldest drag hunt still in existence in the U.S., continues to carry on this tradition — one of camaraderie, horsemanship and community.
Gronau, 61, is the first female huntsman in the club’s history. Her job is to lead the hounds, communicate with them using her voice and horn calls, and provide good sport for the field of riders who follow. The hounds know her, trust her and train under her care.
She works closely with David Gillespie of Beaver Falls, the club’s kennelman and lead line layer. He arrives hours before a hunt to spray a trail of scent made from fox urine, anise oil and even water from boiled hot dogs — hot dogs that later become a reward for the hounds.
“He’s what we call our fox,” said Brian Daniels of Aleppo, senior master of foxhounds.
Tradition and etiquette
Drag hunting is steeped in rules and ritual. Riders, called “The Field,” divide into groups called flights and follow the huntsman across roads, trails and private lands. The huntsman is expected to arrive early, greet fellow members, and respect both the horses and the hounds at all times.
The Sewickley Hunt Club has 102 members, with opportunities for new riders to try the sport. At the August clinic, 31 participants joined seasoned members for the two-hour ride. Riders as young as 5 and as old as 90 have taken part. The club provides clothing and boots for newcomers who may not yet have formal attire. (There is a proper dress code for the formal hunting season.)
The pre-autumn hunt was held Aug. 2-20. Autumn hunting is from Aug. 23 to Oct. 22 and the formal season runs from Oct. 25 to Jan. 1. The club plans to host a junior hunt in September.
Generations in the saddle
Fox hunting runs deep in local families. Carol Semple Thompson, an ex-master of foxhounds from Sewickley Hills, has been drag hunting for 65 years. Her mother, Phyllis Semple, also an ex-master, passed the sport down to her five children. Thompson’s sisters, Heather Semple and Cherry White, both rode in the recent hunt — White helped with traffic control to keep horses and hounds safe on crossings.
“It’s kind of a girl thing to fall in love with a horse,” White said. “Sometimes we fell off, but we always got back on. That’s a life lesson.”
While historically male-dominated, women now play a greater role in the club.
“There are primarily male huntsmen,” Gronau acknowledged, “but the female huntsmen are moving up. We’re getting there.”
She embraces the traditional title.
“I am more than woman enough to be a huntsman,” she said.
Community and continuity
Members say drag hunting is as much a social event as it is a sport. After rides, participants share potluck lunches. They cheer one another on, help riders back into the saddle after a fall, and work together to keep the century-old tradition alive.
“There’s a lot of camaraderie,” said master of foxhounds Meg Guilot, of Sewickley. “We are carrying on a tradition. Our job is to persevere and keep it going.”
Daniels, who also founded the Sewickley Hounds Foundation in 2024 to provide for the club’s hounds, agrees.
“You can assemble a community around a sport,” he said. “It is our job to keep it going and pick our replacements.”
The Sewickley Hunt Club’s story is unique, but it also connects to a larger legacy. The Masters of Foxhounds Association, which governs mounted hunting in the U.S. and Canada, traces the sport’s American roots to Colonial days. The association oversees 135 hunts across 35 states and three Canadian provinces.
Each year, its regional director visits the Sewickley area to ensure the well-being of the hounds and the vitality of the club.
“Drag hunting brings together the excitement of riding to hounds while mounted on a nice horse,” said Sean Cully, first vice president of the association. “At the same time, it allows a drag hunt to take place in a controlled area and a controlled period of time. It takes experienced, strong leaders to manage the hunt and to always be looking forward to protect the integrity of the group.”
For Gronau, the Semple sisters, Gillespie, Daniels and all the members who rise at dawn to ride, drag hunting is a way of life. It connects them to the land, to one another and to generations past.
“It is cool because you are on a trail only 11 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh,” Guilot said. “We’re carrying on the tradition. We cheer each other on, and if someone falls, you help them back up.”
Even the hounds are honored when their working years end. Older dogs are adopted into homes where, as Gronau said, “They make great pets. If you have a couch, they are good.”
And until then, they’ll keep running, horn calls echoing through the Sewickley woods, carrying a tradition that has endured for more than a century.
