Of course they were all taught to ride well. The modern equivalent would be learning to drive a car.
Both yes and no. It's interesting to read accounts from that time of people who didnt't know how to ride a horse. I think they were the majority, and horse-riding was primarily linked to the military and the upper classes that dominated the army. The horses most farmers kept for farmwork (and horses used for hauling goods in urban areas, barges on rivers etc.) were not trained to be ridden, so you usually only hear about small children riding them as a treat (and playing at hussars etc.) Much more common was the skill to drive a horse and cart (or a plough or other farm equipment and handle and take care of a horse), as this was alpha and omega in agriculture and in many urban transportation jobs, including cab drivers. If peasants owning a horse were going anywhere far (market, church etc.) they drove their usual farm cart. Bourgeois families had a roofed coach. To come riding would be seen as the modern equivalent of arriving in an unpractical cabriolet sports car. Something for the chosen few. I doubt common people owning a horse even owned a saddle, so they would have to ride bareback on an untrained horse. Surely a sight for the neighbours to laugh at, like driving to the grocery store on a riding mower today.
Riding was probably a more common skill among the populace before the construction of early modern roads and the Industrial Revolution, as old traditions of Easter races among farmers etc. testify to.
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