I could use help with trouble known as Mounted combat

[Ironlemon]

So I decided to make a cavalier... 1 gaming session later and now I'm here, looking for help.

1. If your mount takes his move action and walks past enemy, the enemy gets AOO. According to RAW as far as I see, the mount is the one that provokes, thus the enemy can hit the mount, not the rider. I am not sure if this is RAI or if there are some hidden rules that I have not found out?

2. Mounted charge. Usually you get -2 AC penalty after charge, in case of mounted charge, does the penalty go to A)mount B)rider C)both. My guess would be C as both take part in it, but I have not found out any rules to support any of the options.

3. Your mount gets spooked by spell, such as cause fear and fails its will save. Is there anything a rider can do, ride check, handle animal, etc? Once again I have not been able to find any rules.

4. While mounted you get higher ground advantage if for example you are medium creature mounted on large creature attacking medium creature. I've seen this said in quite many places, but I have not found out rule that actually says this.

[Bob Bob Bob]

I will preface this by saying some of this is advice/how I think it should work.

1. There are two schools of thought here. One is to treat the mount/rider combo like one creature, in which case you only provoke once but the person can attack either the mount or the rider. The other is that the mount provokes but the rider doesn't because forced movement generally doesn't provoke.

2. This one is a giant cluster@#$% because of rage-lance-pounce. Short answer is C. Longer answer is "If your mount charges, you also take the AC penalty associated with a charge. If you make an attack at the end of the charge, you receive the bonus gained from the charge. When charging on horseback, you deal double damage with a lance (see Charge)." But it's not actually a charge for anything that says "charge" (like pounce), unless it has an exception (like Rhino Hide). I think that's the current FAQ.

3. Nothing to stop a mount from running. Its behavior is controlled by the spell so the spell take priority. You can presumably direct which way it flees in terror from the object of its fear, but that's up to the DM. I recommend getting Indomitable Mount and using Ride to laugh at saving throws.

4. PRD section on mounted combat. "When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the +1 bonus on melee attacks for being on higher ground."