I was just reading one of the recurring "I bought the riding skill, but didn't get it" threads, with the usual answer of "check yoru passive skills", when it suddenly occurred to me that this skill is completely misnamed.

Clearly all our characters have the riding skill from the moment we leave the starter instance, otherwise the space by the starter zone stable masters would be littered with dazed toons who bought their first stable mount ride and promptly fell off as soon as it started to gallop. Since the stable mounts are faster than any other mounts in the game, it seems reasonable to expect that they would take the most skill to ride. They are not placid old nags who saunter along as if you were sitting on an ambulatory arm chair. There are some routes on which they make some pretty violent turns, guaranteed to leave a poor rider heading out of the saddle and over their heads.

Think of it like car rental. Surely the first question the stable master would ask is "Can I see your riding license?". No liveryman in his right mind is going to let you take out a high-performance beast without checking that you can look after both it and your own scrawny hide. Their insurance rates would be sky-high!

It seems to me that the skill you buy in the store or gain through the quest should renamed to something like "Care and Maintenance of Horses". Buying a horse is a serious responsibility, and you need to have the right abilities to tend to its needs of you expect it to come at yoyur beck and call whenever required. My main has a herd of around 30 horses that are clearly following hin throughout his journeying in Middle Earth, and it must take up all his time when I am not logged in to feed and groom them all.

Lets have some truth in advertising and rename this skill to better reflect the abilities it delivers.