Im trying to buy a horse, HELP!?

It is perfectly okay to keep in a field...im 5'4 and my horse is 16 hands...i would look in your local paper or on craigslist.com..they are not hard to come by & there is a lot of amazing horses in your budget range....you just need to have a good water source for your horse....I would also suggest taking someone that does have a lot of experience with horses with you to buy a horse..when looking for a horse first look at his ears if they are layed back that is bad it shows bad tempered if his ears are standing up that shows and interest and that is what you want..You need to ask to see the horse in action a lot of problems will go unnoticed unless the horse is being ridden or worked..my best advice to someone new to horses is "if it doesn't look right if probably isn't"...you also want a calm horse not an easily excited one..i would suggest getting an older horse..breeds don't really matter, I have a Thoroughbred(used mostly for racing,jumping,&polo) and he is very good with small kids and i taught one of my friends how to ride on him...i would suggest if small kids or anybody really is riding the horse that they wear a helmet cause accidents do happen, it doesn't have to be a fancy helmet just a simple bike helmet works but you don't have to tho...