Marcus Ehnings' "Coolio" – A Profile of the World Championship Alternate

Coolio? There was that thing with “Gangster’s Paradise” … Yeah, that was a thing back in the day. But ever since the Holsteiner gelding of that name joined Marcus Ehning’s stable in 2023, every show jumping fan associates the name with a 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding by Casalito-Quidam de Revel, bred by Martina Wirtz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. She knew exactly what she was doing when she put Coolio’s dam, Anka VIII, into the breeding program and paired her with Casalito.

Coolio’s Ancestry

Coolio’s sire, Casalito, boasts three of the greatest Holstein sires of the past and present in direct succession across the first three generations: Casall – Landgraf I – Lord. Two full brothers were also licensed as stallions; one of them, Colicchio, was successful in show jumping up to 1.60 meters. Casalito himself competed internationally with Christian Hess in show jumping up to 1.50 meters. He sired several 1.60-meter horses, but Coolio is his flagship.

On his dam’s side, he descends from the Holsteiner line 2067. And just as Coolio’s sire’s pedigree features one breeding stallion after another, so does his dam’s. Anka VIII is a Quidam de Revel–Contender–Corofino I–Silvester–Capitol I–Sacramento Song xx mare. Of particular interest here is the Capitol mare Alraune. She is not only the dam of Toni Haßmann’s licensed stallion Landstreicher, but also the dam of the mare Elraune, who is not only Coolio’s great-great-grandmother, but—through the Lavaletto daughter Palaune—is also the great-grandmother of LT Holst Freda, who is set to represent Great Britain with Harry Charles at the World Championships in Aachen and has been counted among the four-legged discoveries of the year at least since her performance in Rotterdam.

Another horse from this bloodline that has already proven itself in Aachen: Conrad de Hus, who won silver in the individual competition at the 2015 European Championships—the last championship held at the Soers—with Gregory Wathelet.

The Albert Einstein of the horse world

Coolio was Anka’s first foal in 2013. Breeder Wirtz entered him in the Holsteiner Elite Foal Auction. There, the young horse found a new home in Bavaria. His career under saddle began rather unspectacularly with appearances in show jumping classes. At age five, however, the Marschall family took notice of the gelding, and that was the beginning of something great.

Show jumping horse dealer Manfred Marschall (who, for example, discovered Steve Guerdat’s Olympic champion Nino des Buissonnets) and, above all, his son Marcel—who was to take the gelding’s training under his wing—quickly realized: They had a rough diamond in their stable. “He’s an absolute Albert Einstein among horses. I’ve never seen anyone like Coolio before. He’s a genius. He’s got the whole package,” raved Manfred Marschall, by the time Coolio had long since become a star.

Coolio didn’t explain the theory of relativity to him, but: “When we’d worked with seven to ten horses and then Coolio came along, everything was different. Nothing was hard for him. He just could do it. He doesn’t want to touch.”

That’s a commendable attitude for a show jumper, and in Coolio’s case, it was paired with a healthy dose of physical ability right from the start. That’s why they didn’t train him very much, says Manfred Marschall. Coolio forged his own path nonetheless—and took Marschall Jr. along with him.

International Breakthrough

A look at Coolio’s results archive confirms Manfred Marschall’s statements. In 2019, his son Marcel introduced the horse to his first international junior show jumping competitions. As a rule, they had clear rounds and placed. When they didn’t place, they had at most one knockdown, never two.

Marschall gently worked the gelding up. It wasn’t as if the junior manager of the Handelsstall had never dabbled in competitive riding before Coolio. He’d enjoyed great success, particularly with the mare Fenia van Klapscheut, placing in 1.60-meter Grand Prix events. But Coolio promised entirely different possibilities.

At the end of his eighth year, Marschall ventured into his first 1.50-meter show jumping competition with him at the CSI3* Gorla Minore (ITA). And Coolio? He just didn’t want to touch a single fence and cleared the course with a double clear. He had thus proven that he could handle higher jumps, so Marschall scaled back the program for the time being.

Great sports …

In the spring of 2022, Marcel Marschall entered Coolio in his first 1.55/1.60-meter Grand Prix at the Sunshine Tour in Vejer de la Frontera. For the first time in his career, the gelding had two knockdowns in a single course. How does a born winner handle such a setback? He learns! In the next Grand Prix four weeks later, Coolio finished fourth with two clear rounds. In Rotterdam, he competed in his first five-star Grand Prix—and placed.

His Nations Cup career followed the same pattern. Coolio competed for Germany in the EEF League for the first time. It wasn’t exactly ideal, with one knockdown in the first round and two in the second. No big deal—we learned something new. After that, there wasn’t a single Nations Cup—whether with Marschall or, later, Ehning—in which the gelding didn’t jump clear at least once.

… great deals

Trading in potential top-class horses is the bread and butter of the Marschall Stables. But in Coolio’s case, they weren’t in a hurry to find a new owner. “I had too much fun watching him and Marcel compete at the major venues,” as Manfred Marschall said in an interview in 2023, recalling, for example, St. Gallen, where the pair competed for Germany for the first time in a 5* Nations Cup and shone in the first round with a clear round all the way to the final jump. However, Coolio apparently misjudged that final hurdle on the difficult course and took it head-on. In the second round, Coolio knew exactly how to handle that jump and crossed the finish line confidently without any faults—truly an Albert Einstein horse.

That, however, was also the moment when the offers for Coolio reached a level where turning them down would eventually have become unreasonable—especially when that’s your livelihood. The offers came from all over the world and became increasingly “abnormal,” according to Marschall. How fortunate for Germany that, in August 2023, it was Marcus Ehning who was able to convince his patrons to invest in Coolio.

After a few training tournaments at the two- and three-star levels, Verona was the pair’s first World Cup show jumping event, where they missed the jump-off after one knockdown. They then approached their second World Cup appearance in Madrid in true Coolio style: a victory in the jump-off with two clear rounds. This laid the foundation for the first of their two World Cup final appearances to date. Manfred Marschall: “It’s nice when things turn out just as you imagined.”

World Championship Revival in Aachen

Ehning and Coolio made their championship debut at the 2025 European Championships in La Coruña. There, they won bronze as part of the team. Now they are set to make their first World Championship appearance—the seventh World Championship for Marcus Ehning, and his second in Aachen, 20 years after his traumatic experience with Küchengirl at the Berlin Wall.

Due to Ehning’s knee injury, the season didn’t go quite as planned for the pair. They didn’t compete in their first tournaments until March. Their first five-star start was the Global Tour event in Shanghai, where they immediately placed second. They had one knockdown in the Rolex Grand Prix in Aachen. Then came St. Gallen, where they won the Grand Prix.

That was in early June; Coolio hasn’t competed in a tournament since then. He and Ehning were actually scheduled to serve as reserves for Aachen. But Thieme’s withdrawal changed things.

Mixed feelings about the World Cup

For Ehning, this was news that evoked mixed feelings. On Instagram, he wrote the following upon learning of his belated nomination:

“After the initial announcement of the team roster for the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, we were initially disappointed that we hadn’t made it into the top four right away.

“Because a team member dropped out—in my favor—I didn’t want to be the one to take the spot. André Thiemes’ withdrawal was never what we had hoped for. I know all too well the devastating experience André is now going through. We’ve had to go through this ourselves several times in recent years.”

But he also says, “Coolio and I are really motivated and optimistic about the World Championships in Aachen, and we’re excited to be part of the team and represent the German flag.”

Perhaps breeder Martina Wirtz and the Marschall family in Aachen will also be watching as Coolio flies through the Soers with Ehning. For Martina Wirtz, at any rate, it’s something very special that a horse from her breeding program has ended up with Ehning. Through a mutual acquaintance—Josef Estendorfer, the owner of World Cup winner Sandro Boy—she discovered her passion for breeding and met Marcus Ehning. Now, both Sandro Boy and his owner are no longer with us. When the news of Coolio’s move to Ehning broke in 2023, Wirtz told the Holsteiner Verband: “I wish Mr. Estendorfer had lived to see a horse from my breeding program join his stable. This story has now come full circle, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Coolio and Marcus together on the course in the future—maybe even live for once.”

Hosting the World Cup in our own country would be an excellent opportunity.