Building a Mounted Combat Fighter?

[Endur]

I agree that the Paladin is probably best from a mount survivability point of view in 3.0.

Under 3.5, an intriguing alternative is a mounted Ranger with the bow feats, who uses his bow and is riding his animal companion horse. That way, the Ranger's horse gets all of the animal companion benefits and extra hit dice, and the horse is much more likely to survive (almost, but not quite, comparable to a Paladin mount).

 

[Darklone]

Well, druid villains seem to be uncommon... but their anti animal spells are nice for mounts

Gotta check if Animal Companions do get Evasion and better saves... I think not.