combining two d20 builds

[zerombr]

Ok firstly, thanks for reading/assisting me here, I'm only partially knowledgable to the d20 game here so far.
What intrigued me was, firstly, a halfling outrider, as mentioned in the d20 forums theoretical build thread of Supermount, though not so supremely dedicated to the idea of an insanely powered mount. The second thread, would be the Giant Killer thread also in the d20 forums, in which the poster speaks of using the size differential feats. I decided I'd like some sort of middle ground between these two, as I noticed, as I percieve, that Supermount is (mostly) focused on the classes you pick, and the Giantkiller is mostly focused on the feats, however I'm having trouble getting the two to mesh somewhat

As for books allowed, all standard d20 books, (tome of battle is iffy and probably not right for this build anyway)

here's my build to 12 currently, though I'll need to have it charted to 15 at least before I run the char

Strongheart Halfling


PLD1 F: Mounted Combat (Paladin of Freedom specifically)
PLD2
PLD3 (Wayward Warden variant) Enemies are -4 to spot/listen
PLD4 F: Mounted Archery
PLD5
ROG1 F: Giantbane
RNG1 (Favored Enemy:Giants)
RNG2 F: Underfoot Combat
RNG3
RNG4 Animal Companion
WPO1
WPO2 F: Devoted Tracker
WPO3

Thoughts:

I've considered Ride by attack since I can have my mount move, then Full Attack, then dart away, so long as it's not a charge, right?

Should I add Beastmaster? Effectively my animal companion would be equivalent to lvl 4 Druid instead of 4 RNG (lvl 2 Druid). If I gain that, should I get rid of most of the Ranger levels, and switch to Rogue or so, keeping 1 level for Track?

I have nothing against the magicless variants of Ranger and Paladin, in exchange for feats since I typically don't use much magic myself, my fellow players are the ones throwing spells at every single thing that moves, so do you guys think that it's better in the long run to get two feats, or to have minor spellcasting ability for scrolls and wands etc?

What about Close Quarter Fighting and Confound the Big People? Anyone see a way to squeeze either of those into this build, or something similarly styled?

[Grynning]

I'm not familiar with the two builds you mention, as I don't frequent those forums, but with your build I would highly suggest levels in the Halfling Outrider PrC from complete warrior. Stacks with ranger/pally levels (Maybe both due to poor wording) for purposes of buffing your mount and has some nice class features.

[zerombr]

somehow I left those off the build design O.o after Wild Plain Outrider, it was halfling outrider