Tamaroa family brings two Clydesdale foals into the world

The miracle of life unfolded in a regal way over the weekend at the Paul and Christina Kuberski home southwest of Tamaroa.

Two of the family's Clydesdale mares--Poco and Lilly--gave back-to-back birth to two beautiful foals less than three days apart.

The mothers and their "babies"--weighing about 150 pounds each--are doing fine. Lilly gave birth to her foal at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday and Poco gave birth to her foal at 6 a.m. Monday morning. Both foals were standing within minutes of their birth. The mares are taking care of their foals and, according to Paul, all is right with the world.

Their weight pales by the 1,800 pounds their mothers weigh. The mares are all between 17.1 and 18 hands tall.

The Clydesdales are popularized by the famed Budweiser Clydesdale hitch.

Paul admits it may have been a mid-life crisis that prompted his interest in Clydesdales two years ago. He bought six mares and credits his longtime friend, Kevin Hardin of Pinckneyville, with teaching him all what he knows about the beautiful horses.

"We had horses as a little kid," says Paul. He and wife Christina have three children--Josh, Zach and Mara.

Paul has a two-horse hitch in the barn and hopes to put together a four-horse hitch now that his stable of champion Clydesdales is growing.

Paul says he isn't breeding and raising the horses to sell. He just loves the majesty of the animals and for his family to watch the two foals being born was amazing.

The gestation period on Clydesdales is 310 to 365 days--a full year. The mares were bred at the same time and it's amazing that the births came only three days apart.

The mothers got assorted shots during the gestation period, and after their births the foals will get tetanus shots.

There have been a lot of anxious days getting up to this weekend. "We read about a lot of signs to look for before the births," Paul said.

But, he adds, none of them were very telling or helpful.

The Clydesdale foals took quickly to their mothers.

Both foals are mares and don't particularly get along. The two pairs of mothers and daughters are kept in separate stalls for the time being.

So, it's true in all of nature. Sometimes siblings just argue and fight. Congratulations to all.