Hi,  I'm trying to tweak my horses diet for when we head to Arizona for the first time to escape winter.  Ideally my horses at home have a big round bale of grass hay in a net 24/7 but with the crazy hay prices in Arizona I'm not certain I can do the hay 24/7 thing.  

Besides hay 24/7 the coming 4 year old mare gets 2 pounds beet pulp/1 pound alfalfa pellets soaked daily.  I add to that mash 1-2 pounds Hoffman's elite ration (A Canadian complete ration) and 1 pound Hoffman's Pro fat ration.  The coming 3 year old gelding gets the same beet pulp/alfalfa mix but he gets 1 cup each of peas, flax and oats in his mash.

I was considering upping the beet pulp to 4-5 day divided into 2 feedings and upping the hoffmans ration a bit and dividing it into the two feedings.  I was going to quit adding the alfalfa pellets and instead feed alfalfa cubes.

Feeding regimin I'm thinking - Based on a 1000 pound horse. 

15- 20 pounds grass hay (fed in a slow  feed hay net) - either bermuda or teff bought in Arizona or I might haul from home

10 pounds alfalfa cubes

4-5 pounds beet pulp

and then the Hoffmans rations to the mare and the peas/flax/oats to the gelding - I will be bringing the rations with me.

The mare is needing some bloom which is why I recently switched her to the Hoffman's ration.  The gelding is in good condition but both are growing.

Thoughts please, I  haven't had any luck finding an equine nutritionist to critque this for me and most of our vets aren't all that up on equine feed practices. 

For those in Arizona or that have gone what hay do you prefer?  The Teff or Bermuda and why?  Any issue I need to be aware of feeding either?

Thanks  - New to heading south to get out of the cold.

If you can haul hay from home that woul be ideal. If not I wouldn't want to limit hay as ulcer come into play then. If you have the time in the afternoon maybe go ahead and offer them some soaked hay pellets. I know some brands have timothy or teff pellets. 

I would definitely break up my feed into a morning and night feed to keep the stomach working consistently. Even with the amount you are feeding now. That is a lot of lbs to have in one feeding

As far as types of hay I prefer Teff but I grow my own and test it.

Dad gum! Are you feeding drafts?

I'm the farthest thing from a guru but I thought I'd just add that I'm in Texas and I buy my alfalfa hay from a dealer who gets it shipped in from AZ.. its decent most of the time and I'm paying $29 for the big 120lb 3 strand. Not sure what the prices are or where exactly it's from in AZ. I just know he trucks it in from there. I feed 3 and what I've been doing is stuffing their slow feed nets with my regular grass hay and I split a few flakes between all 3 and stuff it in their nets as well so it's kind of a mix of grass and alfalfa. I don't weigh my hay I just keep it full throughout the day so they aren't without. Sometimes they finish it all sometimes they don't. They are in dry runs and stalls. But I've found that kind of stretches both my grass and alfalfa hay a bit longer. I'm working towards getting all 3 on the same grain for simplicity sake but right now each is on different.  But I don't feed much grain anyway.  It may be easier to just find a higher fat complete feed to feed along with your hay or cubes for both and skip all the additional stuff. Probably not very helpful but for me these days, the easier and more economical, the better. Most nutritionists are going to tell you to feed based of what your forage is lacking, so you'd need to test it. I thought about testing my hay since we buy in bulk but my alfalfa I only buy 3 to 4 bales a month. 

Not really all that much. Horse will eat 15-20 pound a day. A coffee cup is eight oz. So 2 coffee cups is a pound. By uping beet pulp a horse will back off the hay. Im not sure if she is trying to balance nutrients  while reduceing hay consumption.why peas and where would you get them?