Your first mount in WoW Forever unlocks at level 40. Apprentice Riding costs 100 gold from a carefully saved pile of WoW Forever Gold, teaches the skill, and includes a basic mount of your race at +60% ground speed. There are no flying mounts in Forever, so this saddle is the mobility jump you ride until Journeyman Riding at 60.
What Apprentice and Journeyman Riding Cost
Older Classic realms split the bill: a smaller riding lesson, then a separate vendor mount. Forever folded that up-front cost into the training itself and grants a mount when you learn the skill. Both factions pay the same trainer prices, and the trainer will not teach you a level early.
| Riding rank | Level / speed | Training | Vendor extras |
| Apprentice Riding | 40 / +60% | 100 gold, or 90 gold at Honored | Extra racial colors, 20 gold |
| Journeyman Riding | 60 / +100% | 1,000 gold, or 900 gold at Honored | Swift racial mounts, 200 gold |
Honored reputation with your home faction takes 10% off both the lesson and your race’s vendor mounts. The Legacy perk Bartering can lower some vendor item prices, but it does not cut the trainer fee. Extra colors are optional: you already leave the lesson mounted. Mounts and trainers for another race stay locked until you reach Exalted with that race.
Alliance Riding Trainers
You train with your own race’s instructor. Walk up, learn Apprentice Riding, and ride out. A second color is optional. The vendor stands next to the trainer at every Alliance stop except the Human overflow vendor in Menethil Harbor.
- Human: Randal Hunter teaches riding and Katie Hunter sells horses at Eastvale Logging Camp in Elwynn Forest (84.3, 64.9). Unger Statforth in Menethil Harbor (8.6, 54.3) sells the same bridles, but he does not teach the skill, so learn from Randal first.
- Night Elf: Jartsam and Lelanai train inside Darnassus, so the lesson never leaves the capital. They sell nightsabers.
- Dwarf: Ultham Ironhorn and Veron Amberstill work Amberstill Ranch in Dun Morogh, not inside Ironforge. They sell rams.
- Gnome: Binjy Featherwhistle and Milli Featherwhistle stand at Steelgrill’s Depot in Dun Morogh and sell mechanostriders.
- Skyborne: Genn Fairweather handles both training and sales at Fairweather Stables on Zephras Isle. High Order and Windshaper Skyborne share that stable and ride Galestriders, with matching swift versions at 60.
Horde Riding Trainers
Horde characters follow the same rule: train with your own race, and reach Exalted if you want another race’s saddle later. Orcs learn inside Orgrimmar. Trolls, Tauren, and Undead train in their starting towns rather than the main city.
- Orc: Kildar and Ogunaro Wolfrunner train in the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar and sell wolves.
- Troll: Xar’Ti and Zjolnir work Sen’jin Village in Durotar and sell raptors.
- Tauren: Kar Stormsinger and Harb Clawhoof teach in Bloodhoof Village in Mulgore, not Thunder Bluff, and sell kodos.
- Undead: Velma Warnam and Zachariah Post stand in Brill in Tirisfal Glades, not the Undercity, and sell skeletal horses.
Class Mounts and Pack Mounts
Paladins and Warlocks do not buy their first mount from the racial vendor. At level 40 they pick up a class quest instead:
- Alliance Paladins run The Tome of Nobility.
- Forsaken Paladins pick up A Trusty Steed.
- Warlocks follow the Summon Felsteed chain.
Those quests grant the class mount. Keep the 100 gold in your bags until the quest is finished, because a class mount or a shop-pack mount still needs the riding skill before it will summon. The Cerulean Prideclaw from the Skyborne Heroic Pack is a ground mount, and you still pay for Apprentice Riding in game before you can use it. Every character learns riding on their own, even if a collected mount is already on the account.
The faster class mounts come much later. Alliance Paladins run the Charger line, Forsaken Paladins pick up their matching charger chain, and Warlocks run Dreadsteed of Xoroth. Those are separate late quests with their own reagent costs and dungeon steps. They are not a substitute for the level-40 lesson.
Have the Lesson Gold Ready Before Level 40
Class ability training from level 1 to 60 totals between 206 and 207 gold for every class, so the ranks you buy on the way already sit in the same wallet as the riding pile. Set aside 100 gold, or 90 if you are already Honored with your home city, before the last stretch of the 30s. Auction-house greens you will replace after 40 are the usual leak. Reaching Honored while you quest in your home zones is the discount you can actually plan for: 10 gold off the lesson, and the same cut on any extra racial color you pick up at the vendor.
Plan the trip home before the ding. You are still on foot until the lesson completes, so a hearthstone to your starting city or a flight path into Elwynn, Dun Morogh, Darnassus, Orgrimmar, Durotar, Mulgore, Tirisfal, or Zephras Isle beats a cross-continent walk. If you arrive a few gold short after repairs and the last class ranks, leftover auction stock or WoW Forever Gold for sale can close the gap without vendoring pieces you still wear on the road to 60.
After the First Saddle
Once you ride out, the next gold wall is Journeyman Riding at 60: 1,000 gold for the skill, then 200 gold if you want a swift color from your racial vendor. Other races’ mounts stay locked behind Exalted with that race. There are no flying mounts, so +60% speed at 40 and +100% speed at 60 are the full ground ladder.
- Pick up every flight path you pass while you are still walking. Those routes stay useful after you mount, and they shorten the trip back to the trainer if you ding far from home.
- Ride the long stretches between quest hubs and keep a repair reserve under the saddle.
Leave the stable mounted, then spend the next twenty levels building toward that 1,000-gold Journeyman lesson the same way you banked the first 100.