God did they have to make riding skill character based rather than account based. I mean you do nothing, like nothing at all for it. Go to stable, pick a skill, pay 250 and get 1% increase. Boring and it takes 6 months to get all you want. They really ought to redo the whole system, there's no subscription anymore no need to tie us into the game this way.
I previously created a discussion on this topic because the way the new mount system is designed didn't make sense to me either.
I think it was a big mistake in making the mount attributes character based. The mount attributes should remain with the mount. Each mount should have retained its own class or breed attributes; for example a pack horse should have a higher carrying capacity than a racing horse which would have a higher top end speed. Other mounts would have a mixture of maxiable attributes.
You pay for the type or performance you want. The mount would still be assigned to only one character, but the skins in the crown store would remain account based.