Ok why not look at the country select example and see if you can work a solution from that, alternatively you could validate from the select list by changing the element.name's to getElementByName('your text field').value; so that the select list validates the textfield. Ive not tested this so not sure if it works but worth a try

Somthing like....
function ff_your_selectlist_name_validation(element, message)
{
if (getElementByName(your text field).value=='') {
ff_validationFocus(getElementByName('your text field').value);
return message;
} // if
return '';
} // ff_your_selectlist_name_validation
I still think it would be best if the select list is not active until you type a value in the text field though.