I understand what you're saying now. The way I had been thinking about is was like a Smithy with a plus and a minus: the plus is that it has some flexibility and can be played even when drawn dead, the minus is that you need an extra action to actually use the draw. But I now see that the buy phase option is basically a worse Caravan, since you get the draw sometime next shuffle, rather than on play. Although it isn't a duration so you can still play it every turn when drawing your deck.
Actually, it's kind of interesting that the only case where it's not a Smithy+ is when you have exactly 1 action. With 2 or more you can play it as a Smithy or a Caravan minus, and with 0 actions you can play it as a Caravan minus (whereas a Smithy would be unplayable). With 1 action you are forced to play it as the Caravan minus.
I don't know what the best fix is. I think it compares too favorably to Smithy at $4. Would +1 buy be enough to justify $5? Or what if both horses are gained to hand? I think this is what I originally had, but I thought that would be too good compared to Hunting Grounds.