Well, I was at a FLGS the other day and I let my wife pick out a mini for me to paint. She picked out a Halfling, so I'm going to go with a small Lancer. It's actually pretty nice. I decided I'd go with Deep Halfling Fighter 2/Paladin 2/Sorceror 1/Dragon Disciple 10. I like Halfling with Paladin. I like the early save buffs.
Just fill up on True Strikes and Power Attack my way to infinity and beyond. I'm having a hard time with Handle Animal, however. The rules are so retarded.
From what I can tell you can take a 20 before the game starts and begin with 5+skill ranks/bonuses HD of animal. Stupid. At least since I'm training it for riding, I won't be able to teach it to attack. Since I'm going with a small Lancer, I appealed for me to rear an animal (Boar, since they have the best HP) and also got crafting approved since my character wouldn't make sense if he had only 100g to spend and no crafting/rearing. So I crafted all my stuff. Some Studded Leather barding for the Boar, Scale Mail for my Halfling, and other stuff.
Sounds good. At level 2 I'll be doing 3d6+21 damage on a charge. At level 4 I'll have +4 to saves and +6 against Fear. At level 5 I'll have True Strike online. From there I'll get stat boosts and more slots for true strike.
The only thing I hate is that I know my steeds will be a huge target for the DM's. At 6, I'm planning on taking Leadership for a Dire Bat mount.