Celebrated equine sculptor and avid horsewoman Marilyn Newmark Meiselman died March 8 from pneumonia at the age of 84.
Known professionally as Marilyn Newmark, her horse sculptures have been praised for their exactness, grace, and timelessness, and several are on permanent display at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., as well as the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington. She also had numerous commissions from the New York Racing Association, Professional Horsemen’s Association of America, the Thoroughbred Breeders of Kentucky, and Thoroughbred Racing Associations, as well as with Franklin Mint.
“She was considered by her peers one of the top equine sculptors in the world,” commented her daughter Mindy, who noted that her mother's work won more than 12 gold medals and 100 awards at national and international exhibitions.
She was also a well-known figure in Long Island, where she and her husband, Leonard Meiselman, mapped many of the horse trails in Nassau County for more than 80 years. She still rode her little Quarter Horse, Ginger (the latest in a long string of chestnuts with white stockings), four days a week until two months before her death.
She and Leonard were founding members of the Nassau-Suffolk Horsemen’s Association, and she was an active member of the Old Westbury Horsemen’s Association. She is survived by her daughter and a grandson. Her husband died in 1995.
