Water Valley Woman Adds ‘Horse’power To Gifted Car
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Sylvia Ventrini stands beside “Goldie,” her car decorated with toy horses that have turned heads across Water Valley.
WATER VALLEY — When people talk about horsepower, they usually mean what is under the hood. In Sylvia Ventrini’s case, it is what is glued on top.
More than a dozen small toy horses now stand on the hood of her car, with others lining the trunk lid, creating a rolling display has turned heads across Water Valley and beyond after a recent social media post went viral.
For Ventrini, 62, the car itself is already something special. Before she was gifted the car, she had been walking for about 10 years.
“My legs were getting weak,” she recalled.
That changed about five years ago when her former mail carrier, Alex Harris, gifted her the car, a gesture she still describes as a blessing.
“I told her how much I loved that car,” Ventrini said. “I have had it five years.”
She named the car Goldie.
“It was a blessing from God and her,” she said of Harris.
About a year after she received Goldie, Ventrini began adding toy horses to the vehicle.
“I love horses,” she explained.
At first, there were only one or two glued to the hood. Over time, the collection grew and each one is secured using a mixture of Gorilla Glue and Crazy Glue, which Ventrini says keeps them in place.
The horses are more than decorations. Each one has a name.
There is Blondie. Mabel. And Goldie, named after the car itself.
“Goldie loves it,” Ventrini said about the vehicle.
Harris shared a photo of the car on social media, recalling the day she gifted it to Ventrini after using it for a mail route in Water Valley.
The post drew nearly 500 comments and reactions, with many readers expressing delight at the sight of the horse-covered car.
“One person’s trash is definitely another person’s treasure,” Harris wrote.
The attention has led to more than just smiles. People now donate toy horses to Ventrini, adding to the growing collection.
One request came from a woman at Dollar General, who asked Ventrini to place a horse on the car for her daughter, who had heart problems.
“She wanted me to put the horses on there for her,” Ventrini said.
Another horse on the back of the car holds personal meaning. Ventrini said she once owned a horse that looked just like it.
Ventrini lives on South Street, where Goldie has become a familiar and well-known sight.
“It is amazing,” she said. “They take pictures of it everywhere I go.”
And the project is not finished.
Ventrini plans to start adding horses to the roof next. When she runs out of room, she says she will begin adding smaller dogs between the horses.
Looking ahead, she has a dream that reaches beyond the car itself.
“One of these days, me and Goldie are going to have a farm,” she said. “We are going to take in horses and animals that need care.”
