Side by side: Twin sisters raised with no excuses, high expectations
When Jodi Theisen and her husband Keith were pregnant with their twin girls 19 years ago, the ultrasound with their family doctor showed that one of the babies had an enlarged head.
So they were sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for an appointment. The nurse in Sioux Falls came into the room with a box of tissues and asked them if they knew why they were there.
The Theisens, of Clear Lake, South Dakota, did not know why they had been referred to that doctor, but they soon found out.
Daughter Kaycee had spina bifida.
But that has not stopped the 19-year-old, who is younger than sister Morgan by a minute, from living a full life, doing what she wants and living normally.
Both girls, 2026 graduates of Deuel High School, run barrels, play basketball, and are part of several high school extracurricular groups.
Spina bifida is a birth defect where the spinal column doesn’t close completely before birth. It damages the spinal cord and nerves, which can cause anything from leg weakness, mobility issues, to bowel problems, and more.
Kaycee’s spina bifida is not as severe as other cases; she is not confined to a wheelchair but uses leg braces, as her thigh and calf muscles aren’t strong. The leg braces, which run from her knees down, “help me stabilize,” she said, “and help my posture so I stand up straighter.”
She spent a week in the NICU in Sioux Falls, and when she reached 5 lbs. (she was born at 4 lbs. 7 oz.), she went home.
Her parents never babied her.
“At first, it was nerve wracking,” Jodi said. But having twins kept the new parents busy enough that they had less time to worry about Kaycee’s health.
“If we wouldn’t have had two kids,” Keith said, “we would have slipped into the mode most people do: poor her, poor her, and we would have run to her aid. With twins, we didn’t have time to push the clutch in.”
Keith’s mom, a nurse, tried to indulge her, but Keith and Jodi said no. “Life’s tough,” Keith said. “No blood, no foul. We just kept pushing Kaycee.”
“We didn’t coddle her,” Jodi said. “Thank goodness they were twins. If one did something, then the other had to do it.”
Kaycee kept up with her sister, Morgan, doing everything that Morgan did.
The kids at school didn’t realize that Kaycee was any different from anyone else. Her leg braces fit under her jeans, and it was only when she wore shorts that they saw the braces.
She has had four surgeries, the first one being major surgery when she was four hours old, to place the spinal cord back into the spinal column and close up the column. And she has regular medical appointments, too. But she takes it all in stride. “Other than that, (life) isn’t really that different.”
The girls both rodeo, running barrels in high school and 4-H rodeo.
Her parents are selective about the horse she rides. Because of weak thigh muscles, she is not able to ride with her legs and is less able to push her feet in the stirrups for balance.
At age fourteen, Kaycee started barrel racing on Bully, a horse purchased from her mom’s friend. “We had all the confidence in that horse,” Jodi said. “He took care of her.”
Bully also knew when to care for his rider. One time, when the arena was muddy, Kaycee kicked him, trying to get him to go faster. He wouldn’t. “He went his own speed,” Morgan said. “He took care of her and went the speed he felt comfortable.”
At 24 years old, Bully has been retired. Kaycee is working on another horse, a six-year-old named Mesa, who she is patterning and seasoning.
Her riding style is different than others, she said. “I’m not as aggressive a rider as my sister. Morgan has more feet cues, where I’m more of a hand cue person. Different hand cues is what I focus on.”
Friends sometimes comment to Jodi that Kaycee should kick the horse more, as she competes. Then Jodi explains why she can’t and the friends say, ‘oh, she looks normal.’
Keith, a former bareback rider, worries about both of his girls, but especially Kaycee, when she’s horseback. “It scares the hell out of me,” he said. “It scares me every day.” As a young parent, his foolish pride swore his kids would never wear helmets while riding.
But one day, in the practice pen, when they were young, Morgan’s horse, an old ranch gelding, stumbled and fell, and Morgan fell on her head and was knocked out.
“That was an eye-opener for Dad,” he said. “I almost wrapped them in bubble wrap, trying to protect my girls. Growing up, I was a hardened man, till you have a set of girls,” he quipped. “To see your girls cry really softens you in a hurry.” The girls wore helmets till they turned 18.
Jodi began barrel racing at age 30, but she has put her competition on hold while she (and Keith) work on back-up horses for the girls.
Kaycee is the East Region student event director for the barrels this year; she hopes to qualify for the South Dakota State High School Finals in the barrels. Morgan has qualified for the State 4-H Finals Rodeo in the past, and is headed to this year’s SD State High School Finals.
The girls have their collegiate plans mapped out.
Morgan will attend Lake Area Technical College in Watertown, South Dakota, majoring in financial services. Kaycee will attend Mitchell (S.D.) Technical College, working towards a degree as a medical lab technician.
The family proceeds as if everything is normal.
Keith says Kaycee is his hero. “She’s the toughest girl I’ve ever known in my life. She’s doing everything that everybody else can do, with a disadvantage, and nobody knows it. And the crazy part is, when she swings a leg over that horse, she’s just as equal as everybody else. That’s the cool part for us.”
“You can’t tell she has spina bifida,” Morgan said. “We act the same, we talk the same.”
“Everything Morgan can do, I can do,” Kaycee said, “just not as quick and fast as her. I’m a full-functioning active person.
“That’s how our family is. We roll with the punches. No excuses. That’s how I was raised, and I picked up on it.”
