Hello everyone, long time lurker posting for the first time.
Today I witnessed a player mount their Riding Turtle, and use either Fresh Holly or Preserved Holly to transform it into a reindeer.
When the buff changed from the turtle buff to the reindeer buff, the speed bonus kicked in, and the player was mounted on a reindeer with 60% speed bonus (ie non-epic mount).
My understanding is that the Riding Turtle requires level 20 to use. Potentially a level 29 twink could mount their turtle, transform it into a reindeer and ride around like normal. Would also be handy for lowbies to ride around and obtain all the flightpaths.
I know for a fact that you CAN transform the turtle into a reindeer, however the person I witnessed doing so was level 60, so I cannot confirm whether or not this would allow a level 20-39 player access to a regular mount. If anyone DOES have access to a turtle on a character below 40, please try it out and let us know.
I hope there are people who will find this useful. I'm keen to hear if it will work. If not, sorry to have wasted your time.
Later dudes! I'm gonna go back to lurking for now :P