Meredith is the daughter of film director Richard Michaels and the actress Kristina Hanse. She did not follow in her parents’ footsteps since, at the age of seven, she fell in love with horses. Her sports career as a young girl was very successful and when she was 21, after a few semesters at Princeton University  where she had enrolled in a Political Science course, she travelled to Europe to gain experience riding with the German rider/trainer Paul Schockemoehle. She originally planned to spend the summer in Germany, but then Meredith stayed for three years, falling in love with Markus Beerbaum, also a successful rider and the brother of Olympic champion show jumper Ludger. Meredith and Markus opened their first stables in 1994 in Balve, and then moved to Thedinghausen in 1997 where they built the home and stables where they still live. They married in 1998 when the rider became a German national. Meredith was the first woman to be selected for the German team at a European Championship (Hickstead 1999) and still holds the record for being the only woman to have won the World Cup Final three times, always ridding the same unforgettable Shutterfly. 

Meredith has an eight year old daughter called Brianne Victoria and, in addition to horses, loves the sea and all water sports, in particular diving and sailing!