he's a Beastrider Shaman.....
ok, the shaman part is more or less self explainatory...
the Beastrider part...well....he started off with a special mount which he had a telepathic link to....the animal had a starting Int of 8...and they "talked" through this link... they treated each other like brothers...which is what they called each other...the mount was cohort, familiar, companion...as well as being his ride....
as for the Shaman thing, I dunno if there is any source available which might have a similar class....he used both arcane and divine magic, kind of like the Mystic Theurge PrC....and had decent fighting stats...
if there is a class similar to either one, Beastrider or Shaman, let me know...for both....if not i may need help creating the class(es)
let's start by sayin that, if i have to create both, i've already thought of makin the Beastrider a PrC ....as for the Shaman, i'm already lookin through the spell lists to start layin out appropriate spells for the Shaman class....but help would be GREAT
thanks much