I bought the standard 5 gold mount when I could afford it last month. I just bought the heavy inferno nightmare from the auction yesterday. I didn't need any training to ride it. Maybe you just need to have at least level 1 mount training.
I was going to say Age of Conan started the same way, and I laughed when I first spoke to the person on the beach, because my son and I have a running joke that started when you spoke to the guy in Age of Conan, and he said, "BY THE GODS!". Of course this guys says, "THANK THE GODS!"...