Marcus Ehning's champion stallion, three-time World Cup finalist, World Championship runner-up and Olympic horse Cornado NRW is no longer alive

Cornado, or Cornado NRW as he was officially called, was a son of Cornet Obolensky. His dam was a Holstein daughter of Acobat out of a Cantus dam. In the fourth generation, the gray went back to Cor de la Bryère. The breeder is Antonius, “Tönne” Schulze-Averdiek from Rosendahl.

Champion stallion – the start of a great career

Cornado’s career began as the champion stallion at the Westphalian licensing in 2005. Even though his sporting career took priority in the meantime, the former licensing champion can look back on a great breeding legacy: there are currently 258 offspring with placings in German sport alone. 21 of his sons have been licensed and recognized, perhaps the best known being Cordynox and Cadbury. The successful sport horses sired by Cornado NRW include Büttner’s Minimax, who was successful in international sport under Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann.

Cornado NRW’s offspring have earned a total of more than 1.4 million euros. He himself has lifetime earnings of 2,041,559 euros.

216 of his offspring are successful at advanced (S) level in show jumping in Germany. Among other things, he has sired Bundeschampions and top horses at the World Championships for young show jumpers.

From the Bundeschampionat to the top of the world

As a young horse, he was successful at the Bundeschampionat, among others. Back then, he was still ridden by Marcus Döring, the current co-federal trainer of the German show jumpers, who rode him to the final of the five-year-old class in 2008. The following year, Franz Josef Dahlmann was in the saddle. Under “Peppi” Dahlmann, Cornado NRW competed in his first international advanced (S) level show jumping competitions.

International success with Marcus Ehning

The gray stallion then joined Marcus Ehning’s stable in 2012. It was to be a ten-year partnership at the highest sporting level. The gray horse ended his illustrious career in style in January 2021 with a placement at the Amadeus Horse Show in Salzburg. Ehning and Cornado NRW competed together for ten years.

Three World Cups, one World Championship

The pair’s greatest international successes were two fourth places at the World Cup finals in Lyon in 2014 and Gothenburg in 2016. In 2018, they finished twelfth overall at the World Cup finals in Paris.

The Westphalian combination was part of the German team at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, France. Team Germany finished in fourth place. In the individual classification, Marcus Ehning and Coronado NRW were the second-best German pair in tenth place. In 2016, they were nominated for the Olympic Games in Rio. Unfortunately, the grey stallion was lame just before the first test, which meant that he was not able to compete at the Olympics

From 2021, the breeding use of Cornado NRW at Warendorf State Stud then took center stage. The grey stallion had to be put to sleep there on April 28, 2026. A tumor left those responsible with no other option than to put the grey stallion down.