Should I avoid bran?

Feeding rice bran with alfalfa is a good plan. Wheat is one of those grains that isn't digested well and isn't good for horses.

The best hay for horse is Timothy. It's nutritionally balanced and low in starch.

A good site on hays and sugars: Safer Grass - A Resource for Equine Forage Nutrition

Timothy isn't realistic in Arizona. As trailhorserider said, we can get Bermuda or Bermuda/alfalfa mix.

I thought rice bran was more to add fat for hard keepers, and wheat bran was better nutritionally if used to balance out a heavy alfalfa diet.

I have an older thoroughbred showing up on Monday who needs to put on some weight, so I was figuring on using beet pulp mixed with his senior feed, and some wheat bran thrown in to balance his alfalfa (he's already on the alfalfa and senior, any changes in his diet I intend to build up to slowly).

Has anyone had any experience with daily bran added (either rice or wheat), and has anyone had bad experiences with the wheat in particular?

I've been doing daily small amounts of rice bran, although I just bought some wheat bran too. But I am afraid to feed more than about 1 cup per day, because I have no idea how much is too much, but I am pretty sure I am safe at such a low amount. Plus I am feeding alfalfa, so I know they are getting lots of calcium.

But my guys have wonderful coats with the rice bran.

I have never had bad experiences with wheat, just a lot of folks telling me it's bad. So I don't know. I know you would not want to feed lots of any kind of bran without also making sure they are getting adequate calcium. But beyond that, I don't know much.

PS. I identified you as an Arizona horse owner on your other post just based on what you said you were feeding, lol! I don't think I have ever even seen Timothy. I wouldn't be able to identify it!

Everything you ever wanted to know about Ca/Phos and the differnet types of bran
Understanding the Calcium-Phosphorus Ratio - Susan Evans Garlinghouse

Both of our horses get about a cup of rice bran daily. The 26yr old, is a very hard keeper and gets rice bran, senior feed, all the grass hay she'll eat and 2 flakes of alfalfa.

The 8yr old gets rice bran, a small amount of senior feed and grass hay. The vet told us the senior feed for a nutritionally balanced way to pack weight on her (she was getting way more, we've cut back since she's a great weight now, came to us 100+lbs underweight) and rice bran because she had no winter coat and we were already getting snow. She grew in a very thick winter coat pretty quickly between the rice bran, senior feed, unlimited hay and blanketing her when the temp dropped.

We're keeping her on rice bran and a small amount of senior feed, her summer coat is growing in beautifully, it's not sparse and dull like when we got her. She's not eating much hay right now though, we've got tons of grass growing in the pastures and we're rotating both horses around them.