I usually stick with Infernape. If not I use Rapidash. While Rapidash’s move pool is limited, I still had a lot of fun with it.
I don’t remember using Rapidash on my team, and I picked Piplup. This was Diamond, so those were the only fire types available. Honestly I was brand new to the franchise so this didn’t matter to me.
Ponyta/Rapidash is like, the ONLY other Fire-type you can get in D/P until post-Elite 4. Feelsbadman.
Ideally I'd go with Chimchar or I'd go without a fire type and just teach a fire type move with a TM to one of my Pokémon with a high special attack stat.
I did notice a huge lack of fire types in D/P/Pt and I went with Chimchar. The large amount of water and grass types in comparison was a factor too.
