ok, horsey folks, what the hell????

EDIT: right, just called my local horsey vet to ask him what he thought. Described everything to him, including the dark colour as well as living situation. He agrees it sounds like at some point in the past few days he got poked by something sharp and it pierced his lip and it must have been dirty. He asked re smell of which there was none, asked puss to liquid ratio and all sorts of other stuff. Said nah don't worry about it unless it comes back or starts to look infected. Basically he got dirt in the wound and as I thought, his body worked to isolate it for eventual expulsion, I just hurried it along, hence tha dark colour. If it were green or smelly he said he'd be asking me to come up right away to make sure I got it all out etc etc. Gary said he can swing by if I get worried, or I'm welcome to ride up and he'll do a quick freebie if I get concerned (it's a thing of wonder and glory to live within extremely easy riding distance to your horsey vet!), so I'll check Dan a bit later today and see if it warrants a check. Gary said he will be there all day so I can just drop in if i want, either he or Byron. Otherwise the vet nurses can do a quick check. He said not to worry, is fairly common, believe it or not, just not usually large enough for most horse owners to notice. Says probably got a fair bit of dirt in there which is why it grew to that size. No bit in Danny's mouth for at least the next 3 days tho. Fair enough. Halter it is :-)

I just went down to groom, rug and love all over my two darling hay burners. While doing the usual check to make sure 24/7 turned out ponies were all good, I noticed something NQR on Dan. On his off side, on his mouth, right where the bit sits, there was a HARD lump. About the size of the nail on your pinkie, maybe a little smaller. He showed no discomfort when I touched it and Dan is hysterical at the best of times with his head being fiddled with (in a bad way, I think somone was rough with him at some stage). To see what would happen I gave it a squeeze and he didn't react at all. So I squeezed harder and... STOP READING RIGHT NOW IF YOU GROSS OUT EASILY..... it popped. Out came black puss followed by black liquid, not much of it, sort of like a big zit. I know, I know, freakin' disgusting. He didn't seem to be in any discomfort at all so I squeezed it until nothing but a little bit of blood came out, then I washed it and popped on some sea-gell. Any idea WTF was on my horses' face?????