Fraternal twins more alike than they realize
According to Kim Sasse and Kelley Kapusta, sisterhood includes a balance of likeness and difference, grievance and love.
As fraternal twins, Sasse and Kapusta exhibit the likeness with many outward traits. Often seen in jeans and boots, the 29-year-olds have been riding horses since age 11.
Since August they also have co-managed a horse barn in Forward Township — a job that entails sharing and dividing a myriad of chores.
Those chores include cleaning stalls, caring for 18 horses, dragging riding arenas, mowing the landscape and spraying fence lines with pesticides.
"I tend to focus more on upkeep and maintenance. Kim's very good at doing the paperwork and accounting," said Kapusta, also a full-time office manager for a ceramics company.
"We both have our strong suits at keeping things going on a day-to-day basis."
"It's a business, so you have to run it like a business," said Sasse, on maternity leave from her office job at an engineering firm.
Both say one benefit of co-management is that each knows she can rely on the other — and each knows what to expect.
But sometimes the expected poses a challenge.
Although facing problems head-on is a trait the sisters share, their solutions to problems sometimes differ.
"We're both stubborn and idealistic. We're both take-charge kind of people," Sasse said, noting their styles can lead to conflict. With siblings, conflicts can lack restraint."
"With sisters, there's not a lot of boundaries sometimes," Kapusta said."We fight like cats and dogs, but we love each other," Sasse added."We get over it because we're sisters," Kapusta said.Sasse's husband Zeb confirmed the sometimes volatile relationship, saying he gets a "ringside seat.""They've always been together a lot, talking all the time, so it just seems natural (to) me," he said while with his wife and Kapusta in a newly constructed lounge in the barn — a project completed under their management."Sometimes, Idon't think you realize how similar you are.""When we complain about each other, we probably have the same complaints," Sasse said.Similarities might come from a constant togetherness in childhood: The twins were in the same classes through much of grade school, and both majored in business management at LaRoche College, attending most of the same classes there."We are way too close sometimes," Kapusta said. "We're on our cell phones constantly."Despite the closeness, some traits define the twins as opposites.Sasse describes Kapusta as much more aggressive. Kapusta pegs Sasse as the planner.Although both have competed with their horses, their goals are different in the show ring: Sasse competes in Western classes, Kapusta competes in English."Are we competitive in general? Yes," Kapusta said."But not with each other."In recent months, jobs and barn chores have left the sisters with less time together.With her newborn son Tyler in tow, Sasse will see her twin even less."It's a new set of challenges," she said."But that's good, because I know I've got a baby sitter I can trust."
