Warlocks and Epic Riding skillFollow

This might seem like a dumb question, but I've searched high and low for prior posts about this on several forums and can't find an answer. My friends lock is ready to get his dreadsteed, and yes, we know you can now buy that at the trainer, but the question remains, do you now HAVE to buy the epic riding skill at the trainer, or does doing the questline still grant you the skill for free. I still have the items in my lock for the dreadsteed battle, so it would save my friend some money if he can pick up the mount and skill that way.

If anyone knows for sure please lemme know.

Thanks, I know you can still do the quest, the question is do you still receive the epic riding skill as a reward if you do it this way, or do you still have to go and buy that from a trainer?