This Mustang Life

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This Mustang Life

Jamie Baldanza dedicates her time to shining a light on animal causes through art & stories.

10/25/2026

It’s not every day you get to be a very small sliver of history, especially when it’s something you believe in so deeply.

On Thursday, the NYC Council voted 40–7 to pass Romanch’s Law, putting NYC on the path to ending its horse carriage industry. This fight has been going on for 19 YEARS. Nineteen years of people refusing to give up on these horses, and somehow I got to be a tiny part of it.

First, if you’re not following Edita at NYCLASS you should be. This woman is honestly one of my heroes. Watching her work behind the scenes, learning from her, and seeing what it actually takes to make change happen has been extraordinary. Edita, thank you for bringing THE COALITION FOR RESPONSIBLE CARRIAGE HORSE RETIREMENT into this fight and trusting us to help get this bill across the finish line.

To Speaker Julie Menin, my gosh, you are a FORCE. To Christopher Marte thank you for bringing this home and listening to the people. And to Shaun Abreu Robert Holden Council Member Harvey Epstein Council Member Carl Wilson Oswald Feliz and all the council members who championed this cause, thank you.

This whole experience reminded me of the Barack Obama years, when you felt like you could fight alongside your elected officials and actually have HOPE. I haven’t felt that in a long time. Thank you for giving me a little of that back.

To my Coalition ladies, 𝗥𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 Mel Sobolewski and Laura Spielman well, now we have a job to do! :) And to Tillie the Clown Shelly Voorhees & Vilma Duplantier Ashley Byrne and everyone I’ve met along the way, I’m so grateful.

From testifying and meeting with Council members and the Mayor’s Office to hearings, rallies, and everything in between, this has been something I’ll never forget.

And finally, to Romanch and his family, thank you for taking what could have understandably become anger and heartbreak and turning it into something so much bigger. You turned grief into purpose and love into a fight that will change the lives of countless horses. I hope you know how beautiful that is.

Edita, you made something really special happen. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now let’s get this baby signed into law!!!

And if your photo is up here and I tagged it wrong please let me know!

10/22/2026

See you all tomorrow in NYC and let’s get this done the year of the horse!!!

Genaro ✌️

10/15/2026

My eyes opened exactly one minute before my alarm went off this morning. 4:59 am.

It was one of those wake ups where you feel it before you even process it. A horrible migraine. The thudding, the dizziness, and that awful dread of knowing if you move, it will get worse. I considered not getting up at all. But I’m only here in Utah for a short time. So I found my medicine and slowly started layering on the clothes and gear I’d need for another morning searching for wild horses.

I pulled into the Onaqui HMA before sunrise. The sun hadn’t reached the ridgeline yet. Good. I still had time. And then I saw them. This beautiful little band of horses I know absolutely nothing about. And among them, a foal that couldn’t have been more than a week old.

I parked about half a mile away and found a spot where I could quietly observe them without disturbing their morning. Life is precious. And there’s something about seeing a brand new life in the wild that makes you forget, even for a moment, everything else going on in your own.

Usually when I photograph horses, I try to position myself with the sun behind my subject (love my backlight!) But today I wanted to see the eyes of this brand new, wide eyed little life. To see the world through eyes that had only been open for a few days. And I realized just how lucky I was to be standing there. I didn’t spend much time with them, I wanted to give them their peace.

So thank you to this little band for letting me witness a tiny piece of your world. You have no idea how much I needed it. ❤️

And yesterday? That’s a whole other story for my next post. 🙂

One more thing! The Onaqui Catalogue Foundation does an incredible job monitoring this herd, and I’d love to help them out. My goal is to raise $200 for a new trail camera they can put out on the range to help keep an eye on these horses.

How about it? Can we make that happen? ❤️

With the Onaqui herd, and all wild horses, respecting their space is so important. Especially with a newborn. This was taken with my 500mm lens and cropped significantly. You don’t have to be close to experience something extraordinary.

10/06/2026

You heard them before you saw them.
Distant whinnies carrying across the desert. Hooves pounding somewhere behind the trees. The unmistakable thud of kicks landing. Every once in a while, branches would shake and you’d catch a flash of movement, but that was it.

They were all hidden across the river behind layers of trees, which honestly felt a little unfair! I was about five minutes away from fording the river Oregon Trail style just to find them.

Then, through one tiny break in the trees, we spotted two stallions taking a breather (second pic). Just standing there for a moment like they hadn’t been causing complete chaos seconds earlier. And then they were off.

They tore down toward the river, hooves kicking up dirt, went straight at each other at the water’s edge, rearing, striking, splashing, all muscle and noise. And for a few wild seconds we finally got to see what we’d been hearing.

And just like that, they disappeared back into the trees. Asshats.

Wild horses being wild horses. Making you work for every glimpse and somehow making you love them even more because of it. Stay wild, my friends.

And I’m very excited that next week I’ll be heading back out west to be in the wild again. I need it.

10/03/2026

Sunrise in Blawn Wash, Utah.

No people. No noise. Just that kind of quiet you forget exists. A wild horse wandered across our path, stopped to give us a look, a little roll, a snort, and then went right back to their day.

Nothing dramatic happened. And maybe that’s the gift. Getting to stand quietly in their world for a few minutes and watch them simply be wild horses.

09/24/2026

absolutely stunning

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