The horses got out today.

Neighbors are different in the country.

When we lived in the city, we barely ever saw ours. Everyone stayed inside their houses and kept to themselves.

Here, people still mostly keep to themselves, but they're always there for each other in an emergency.

To top off this really hard week that I've had, the horses somehow managed to get out of their pasture while I was home alone with the kids.

And this time, unlike the one time they got out and just stood around the front yard, they started galloping down our dirt road.

One of my horses is an off-the-track thoroughbred and 3x winner at Tampa Bay Downs -- so you can imagine how fast they started making their way to the main road, even with my chunky little paint trailing behind.

Thank goddess for my neighbor across the way, whom I've actually never met in person but came running to help.

Another couple of neighbors who saw what was happening came down the road on their side-by-side to see if they could also help.

Together, we managed to catch both horses and bring them back.

One of the other boons of living here: nearly everyone on this road has experience catching rogue livestock.

My neighbor across the way and I finally exchanged phone numbers and made promises to keep an eye out for one another.

Today's incident ended so much better than it could have because people saw an emergency unfolding and came together without a second thought.

So often, I feel alone and like I have to deal with every crisis as a singular front. Sometimes my husband is here to help, but many times he is not.

But today showed me how much less alone I really am. How much less alone we really all are.

And just how fortunate I am to live in a place which, despite the overall tone of the politics, proves that people have a core generous spirit when push comes to shove.

Photo: the troublemakers in question, in quieter and less heart-attack-inducing times.