Forever, or just while you are in school?
Either way it is a good time to practice being responsible adult about financial decisions. Excellent that you are willing to do that.
Sounds like you are thinking about this more deeply. Long-term thinking leads to a long good life! 
DO NEITHER. If you are worried about affording the horse and boarding costs, do not buy the horse.
You are a student. Do not waste money on a car because itās flashy. Thereās nothing wrong with your current car.
Put the money into a savings account and save it. That is the best advice I can give you. Most Americans have put themselves into debt. Donāt be one of them. Have a nest egg and always have a nest egg for emergencies.
Have you also calculated or asked if you are going to owe TAX on that money you were gifted? (Depends on the amount.) People often forget about that and then have an unpleasant surprise come tax day.
Agree w those who say buy neither and invest.
But:
Donāt worry - do the math.
Even though youāve made the smart move to skip the expensive, rapidly deprecating financial liabilities, uh, I mean, fun things, itās a good exercise to run the numbers on three scenarios.
See where your money would be in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years. Itāll be an eye opener.
PS even though your parents are well off enough to support you Iām glad youāre working at Starbucks - thereās NOTHING like retail/service positions to make a person.
I worked at a couple car dealerships years agoā¦ never buy a new car. Let someone else take that depreciation hit. Also agree with the other posters, I would buy neither horse nor car while working part time.
There is some value to buying a car new - you know exactly what the maintenance & use history is. The cars Iāve been happiest with are the ones I bought new, kept for 10 ish years and drove into the groundā¦or another solid object. 
For the OP, no donāt buy either one right now.
There is some value, if youāre going to keep it for that long, sure. For most people though, youāre taking that depreciation hit as soon as itās driven off the lotā¦ although in COVID times that may not apply for a while.
My general advice to anyone contemplating buying their first horse is to work out how much itās going to cost in board, farriery, insurance etc per month and then put that amount into a savings account. Do this for at least 12 months. If at the end of that time you have managed to save without raiding the account for your personal day to day expenses (or emergencies) then you can probably afford a horse, and youāll have a reasonable amount towards its purchase.
excellent advice Nous
If the poster is in the US, gift recipients do not generally pay any taxes (or even report) the gifts to the IRS. It would be the giver who may owe on it, depending on amount.
I bought a new Subaru Forester in 2020, was going to pay cashā¦then they said there is zero percent financing with zero dollars down availableā¦ so that is what I took and kept the money in the money market account.
Since then the car became more valuable than a new one since it was here. ā¦and the car today is STILL worth what I paid for it ā¦current resale is more than what I paid for it new,
Iāve never bought a new car! But the OP is talking about buying a sports car, a āmuscleā car, which by definition isnāt a practical purchase like, say, a new Subaru, and her current car is still working well. (Iām unclear if she intends to maintain two cars.) Even so, maintaining two cars is still an extraneous financial drain.
Iām not saying donāt have fun, but have fun leasing, lessoning, going to car shows, and save the money, riding out this economic moment, and donāt tie yourself down. The expenses re: the horse will be difficult because even if board is $450 now, after graduation and when the OP is more financially independent, it may be necessary to move to a different area.
More unsolicited advice 
A common rule of thumb is to have 3 months of living expenses in a savings account.
Perhaps start working towards that goal. Maybe living expenses include: future rent estimate, estimated utilities, insurance, etc. Once you hit that goal, add 3 months of board, lessons + a little extra. Once you get there, 3 months of an estimated car payment. This will set you up when you are more financially sound for a horse or if you HAVE to buy a car.
My emergency fund is quite large now because I have been able to include my horseās monthly costs (including lessons!) as my career has developed. At first, it was āwhat is rent and 3 months of groceries?ā. Now it is āwhat do I need to do to maintain our weekly lessons tooā.
Our emergency fund is VERY useful. There are times when we needed unplanned funds (vet, tires, emergency room for a toenail). I whine and moan but my SO says āUSE the emergency fund, thats why we have itā. So we pay the bill knowing we will build it back up soon. We use credit cards, but just to maintain credit and utilize rewards. We pay the balance every month. New tires wonāt put us into 4 months of debt is what I am sayingā¦
ETA: ok, nevermind, you lost me at ātrust fundā
Everyone has great advice here. Iāll just say that as a 42 year old - I wish I had learned about and done more investing at your age! I would be a lot further ahead than I am now!
I think this is good advice.
Iām an enabler from way back, but even I think buying a horse in college ā particularly a young green horse ā is not a good plan. He could jump in a tree tomorrow and be lame for the rest of his life.*
*This has happened.
That said, a fully loaded MUSTANG, with the price of gas going thru the roof? Thatās a nonstarter as well.
All my enabler buttons just donāt work today.
Itās great that you have some extra cash that has been plonked down on you. I get that treating yourself is almost irresistable. Itās nice to be able to do that!
Take half of it, and treat yourself with what that half will buy. Then save the rest. I guarantee you there will be some problem that rears its head in the future that will make you glad you did.
Iām not sure what track a car means. Are you talking about stock car racing? Iām not sure how many college students have the time or the funds to race cars. Also it strikes me that horses and hobby or race cars are two super expensive and all consuming activities and going forward or might be difficult to do both.
I know nothing about hobby or race cars, my idea of a car or truck is that itās directly useful for commuting to work and doing things for and with the horse. So I maintain an F250 as a second vehicle to my Corolla daily driver. The idea of āoutgrowingā a car is foreign to me, though I certainly know all about driving them into the ground.
Anyhow, I cannot give you any advice on buying or investing in stock cars for racing. It doesnāt seem to me compatible with going to college full time and working at Starbucks part time, but then I donāt live in a part of the world where stock car racing is common.
You might need a stock car racing chat group to mull this over with.
Do you have specific goals for racing, does it tie into your planned career, is this something you view as a serious lifelong sport?
Some here may not be familiar with the car racing industry.
Not that such may be part of this, but here they have races every weekend, have circuits where people race all kinds of cars, tracks on the outside of many towns that are busy in the weekends.
They have races for little kids on little cars, parents and grandparents dress their little kids with racing outfits, their little cars can be very expensive or just put together with wire and duct tape, they get big trophies and many pictures.
The race car industry has many layers, just as the horse world, that most people are not aware of unless they and friends are involved in them.
That could be one more explanation here, if OP is part of that world and the horse world, why the question which to put that bonus money in?
Yes, this changes the whole equation. I was just thinking OP wanted a nicer daily driver which is a luxury that should wait.
If this is in fact a sport car, Iād still ask the same questions as of buying a horse.
What are the maintenance costs? What is the chance of the car crashing and burning? What are the time and cash costs of competing? What are the potential cash or career rewards of competing? What level of competition are you at, and will this new aquisition be suitable to you, or is it ātoo muchā for your current skill level? Why do you want to do this now rather than after you graduate? Where will you live when you get a job and can the sport be practiced there? Whatās the depreciation or appreciation on the item and csn you resell? How much work csn you do yourself, versus needing to pay an expert mechanic (or horse trainer)?
Things are complicated by the fact someone has gifted OP fun money to buy something. Thatās very sweet. But Iām well aware that say loving grandparents are quite capable of giving this kind of money without fully thinking through what the ongoing maintenance costs would be and how the gift might hamper the recipients flexibility in life. But on the other hand, you insult them by putting the money in a short term savings account to pay for your first condo.
Depends on the interest rate. I took out a loan for my truck last year because it was a 0% deal, and I can make more by leaving the cash in stocks.
Well, the parent side of me is coming out in my advice to you.
Save up until you can buy the car you want outright. You really donāt " need " a newer car but it sounds like you āwantā one to basically fill a desire for a flashy car? Not a good reason in my book to spend money on.
Buy a horse when you can afford to pay the costs of ownership yourself.
So basically you need to find out what you would like more ( horse or flashy car) and save and wait until you can afford it on your own dime. Just my advice.
Just another perspective: even if youāre fortunate enough that money isnāt as big a factor in your decision-making as it might be for some other people, college is a very special time in life. Youāve made the decision to go, so max out the opportunities you have in college to study, do college activities, internships, and so forth. Plus, youāre already working part-time for income.
Breaking a young colt is a great deal of work, and requires a great deal of time. If you want to spend some of the money on fun stuff, take some more lessons, maybe lease a horse. Save the money to buy a horse for the rider and lifestyle thatās right for you at the end of four years, which might be different than whatās true for you now.
This is a horse message board, so obviously many of us (including myself) are like, āyour current car works fine, and when you get a new one, get a nice new used vehicle that can pull a trailer,ā but youād get different advice on a car board, for sure. If you want to pursue cars rather than horses professionally, of course, thatās different but then you should talk to people who followed that path (but also went to college, since they might be aware of opportunities for college students and car racing we arenāt here).
? You do? I donāt think thatās necessarily so. OP would have to tell us how the gifter of the money might respond to such an idea.
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