Looking to purchase a horse (first time owners)

Background info:
Both myself and my best friend (T) are 22F, recent college grads living in the tri-state area. We are going to have to move back in with to our parents, but the plus side is rent isn’t an issue. We live very close to each other and going out together gives us a good reason to get out of the house. T has been riding for about 10 years, competing in hunter/jumper and dressage for most of it. I have been riding for about the same time with a 4 year break in the middle. I’m not a fan of competition, but did compete in dressage for a short period. I ride primarily Western now, but rode English (hunters/dressage) for 7 years. I have helped one of my trainers with exercising and training her ranching and mounted shooting horses, both T and I have basic horsemanship skills, and we have quite a few books on training.

The situation:
We both really love riding and want to continue, but we want to put real work into a horse. Unfortunately, horses are expensive and we don’t have enough money for one individually. That’s why we want to pool our money and purchase a horse that we could hopefully train to be comfortable in both English and Western. We were considering maybe an OTTB since we both have experience riding them. We’re doing research on where to board them nearby, finding farriers and vets in the area to look into, and creating a game-plan to hopefully get a horse within the year. We know this is not a cheap endeavor (time or money wise), but we both love horses and want to put the work in to train our own horse. This is not a decision either of us take lightly as we want to be able to give the horse the life it deserves.

Any thoughts or guidance greatly appreciated!!