By Sharon Turco
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A group of horse owners is suing a Vermont-based horse association saying expunging a Morgan horse with a tainted bloodline and its offspring from its registry interferes with their livelihood.

The eight horses, potentially worth thousands of dollars each, can no longer be shown or bred - the very reason the owners purchased them.

"These were innocent horse owners," said Frank Becker, the owners' Lexington attorney. "They showed the horses as Morgan horses and now they can't. It's pretty upsetting," he said.

The American Morgan Horse Association, an agency that registers the pedigrees of Morgan horses, took Chantilly Lace off the registry in February after DNA revealed the horse was not a purebred Morgan, despite the association's 1999 decision that the horse could remain on the registry.

Then, on Nov. 1, the association held a hearing in Cincinnati to remove ChantillyLace's offspring from the registry. In all, 51 horses lost their registry status.

Morgan horses are a breed that all trace their ancestry to a single stallion named Justin Morgan, foaled in 1789.

In the suit filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, an Oberlin couple, three Illinois residents and a Kansas couple accused the association of breaking their promise to keep the horses on the registry and conspiring to diminish the national Morgan horse market to benefit its members, officers and directors.

They are asking a judge to reinstate the horses on the registry, Mr. Becker said.

Mike Banion, 47, who breeds Morgan horses in South Charleston, Ohio, about 70 miles north of Cincinnati, said removing a Morgan horse from the registry leaves it with no value.

"It's a dirty shame that this happened," said Mr. Banion, who has been breeding horses for 15 years. "But a Morgan is a Morgan, nothing else."

Morgan horses are known as a light breed that is versatile, with a good disposition. The U.S. Cavalry used them during the Civil War, and they were also used for the Pony Express.

Leaving Chantilly Lace and its offspring on the registry would further taint the Morgan's bloodline, Mr. Banion said.

Tyler Atwood, the association's registrar, refused to comment on the lawsuit, saying he had not seen it.

E-mail sturco@enquirer.com