Ug! Mounts were sort of a trial thing we implemented for UOForever. The staff hard hard ons for mounted pvp over there and the eradication of the bola made it really impossible to not use mounts. Don't worry though. IPY3 is a no mount shard. As far as I know, hiding is still a required skill and always has been.

As far as downloading the IPY info, Az is making a new downloader that will be all inclusive for the shard. It will be out before launch with ample time to download it and get it in place.