Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, three-time FEI World Cup Champion and team gold medalist from this year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, will return to her California roots and spend the show season at the HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, Calif.

Michaels-Beerbaum rides for Germany after marrying Markus Beerbaum, but that doesn’t prevent Californians from claiming her as one of their own, since the 40-year-old grew up there before moving to Germany in 1991.

Her first trip to Thermal was in 2009 when she led a riding clinic for the West Coast Active Riders. That trip left an impression on Michaels-Beerbaum, and this season will be her first competing at the circuit. Her husband will join her there along with their daughter, Brianne Victoria, who will celebrate her first birthday on Feb. 27 during the circuit.

“I’m very excited to come back to California and see my family, some old friends and colleagues,” said Michaels-Beerbaum. “Markus and I have a couple of students from California competing in Thermal who asked us to join them. After considering the options, we decided to come for the entire circuit and to bring some of our young horses to help develop them and prepare for the European summer schedule. I love doing something new and different, so I’m looking forward to being based out of Thermal for the winter. It will be a great opportunity for me, my family and our students.”

Michaels-Beerbaum and Beerbaum will help train Gaby Salick, Saer Coulter and Lucy Davis, while one of their students from Germany, Alabama native Christie Israel, will also make the trip from Europe with two of her horses.

“We have a great group of students; Christie, Gaby, Saer and Lucy are all terrific,” said Michaels-Beerbaum. “In fact, I first met Saer at that clinic back in 2009, and Lucy trained with us in Germany before she won the 2009 European Youngster Cup Final, which was incredible. For her to come to Germany just a few days before the Final and beat all those really great European riders was really quite impressive.”

Michaels-Beerbaum is already qualified for the World Cup Final, so the focus for Thermal is to develop and prepare her four young horses.

“The one that’s the furthest along is our mare Kismet. She’s been doing the 1.50-meter classes in Europe but hasn’t stepped up yet to the 1.60-meter World Cup classes, so we hope to do that with her in Thermal. Lancaster is a gelding who was a very competitive 8-year-old horse that competed in Aachen and has been out of the sport for a while, so we’re looking to bring him back to the that level, again,” she said. “The other two horses, a mare and a gelding, are 8 years old and both much greener. I don’t expect them to be in the big grand prix, so they’ll do more of the futures divisions and such to get them ready for the summer in Europe.”