Captain Kirk's former wife boldly goes into courtroom battle for access to breed horses

William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk inStar Trek, is being taken to court by one of his ex-wives – a common enough experience for a man who has wed four times. Only this time the issue is not alimony or tussles over property, it's frozen horse semen.

According to a suit recently filed in Kentucky, where Mr Shatner is well known as a horse breeder, ex-wife number two, Marcy Lafferty Shatner, accuses him of breaching one of the more unorthodox clauses in their 1995 divorce agreement – a commitment to provide fresh semen samples every year from three of his prize stallions.

Such samples can be worth tens of thousands of dollars on the horse-breeding circuit, so the claim is not as bizarre as it sounds. The suit claims that this year the semen came not in "fresh cooled format" but frozen – a lowering of standards that Ms Lafferty finds unacceptable.

"Potential buyers of the breeding privileges do not want the semen in frozen format," the suit states bluntly.

The suit did not spell out what the advantages of fresh over frozen were – whether it was just a matter of perceived quality, like home-made ice cream versus store-bought, or whether it made a material difference to the breeding process. Nor was there a specific claim for damages. Ms Lafferty's lawyer, Thomas Ezzell, told a Kentucky newspaper: "My understanding of this is that there is a lower percentage of successful impregnations with frozen. You know, you only get one shot at this, so to speak."

Mr Shatner, 72, has raised saddlebred horses in Kentucky since the mid-1980s and has turned it into a lucrative business. He has yet to make a formal response to the suit and had no comment after it was made public this week.

This is, though, not the first time he has been taken to court over horse breeding. In 1990, a former associate sued him over breeding rights to Sultan's Great Day, a world champion fine harness horse, saying Mr Shatner had broken an agreement allowing her to breed two mares a year for the duration of the stallion's life.

Mr Shatner argued there had been no agreement, only a gift on his part that he chose to withdraw. The judge sided with Mr Shatner after a two-day trial. "In any business, people have a different perception of the truth," Mr Shatner said at the time.

Horse breeding is just one way Mr Shatner has earned a living since leaving Star Trek. He has also been involved in television production, book publishing and, during the dot.com boom, helped to promote the online discount website Priceline.com.

He hit the headlines in 1999, when his third wife, Nerine, was found dead at the bottom of their swimming pool in Studio City, California. An autopsy later ruled that the death was suicide – she had taken sleeping pills and drunk heavily before diving into the pool.