Markus Beerbaum with wife Meredith Michaels Beerbaum and daughter Brianne after winning the 2017 DKB Riders Tour at Munich Indoors. Ph. ©Thomas Reiner
He’s calling it his comeback year, and although Markus Beerbaum never really left, he’s been just outside the center of the spotlight—until recently.
The 47-year-old German rider, trainer and coach needs no introduction. Whether he is helping his wife, American ex-pat Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, with her string of top-level horses, bringing along their up and coming prospects, or guiding the careers of rising grand prix stars, Markus is a steady presence at competitions around the world.
But his years as a team rider, which reached a high point in 1998 when he won Team Gold at the Rome World Equestrian Games, and continued with many international appearances for Germany at FEI World Cup Finals and Nations Cups, had abated in more recent years. Not for any one reason, but one can imagine that coaching the USA’s Lucy Davis at the start of her international grand prix arc, as well as the careers of sisters Saer and Audrey Coulter, and more recently Chloe Reid—among others—took considerable priority.
Reid, who has had a breakout 2017, is based with the Beerbaums in the summer months and continues to ride with the couple. And this summer, while Markus was the road since the culmination of the 2017 Wellington circuit, the prestigious DKB Riders Tour in Germany came into focus for him. He competed at five of the six stops on the circuit and last weekend at Munich Indoors, rallied with enough points to take the overall DKB Riders Tour title.
“We have a great tradition in the series as a family, and now that I am successful after many years is beautiful,” Beerbaum commented on Sunday.
The timing of his win coincided with his birthday week—Beerbaum turned 47 on Thursday, November 16. And with luck, Beerbaum will continue his comeback tour this week in Stuttgart with more success. As Meredith pointed out on his birthday, it has been over ten years since Markus was on the entry list for CSI5*-W Stuttgart, and exactly 24 years ago that he won the Grand Prix of Stuttgart (see video here.)
See the entry list for the Stuttgart German Masters CSI5*-W at this link.