It looks like CCP saved an important EVE Online announcement for after Fanfest. The team revealed today, April 1, that mounts are coming in Incarna. There are two tiers to this new pet system:

• Smaller pets that will initially live in your Captain's Quarters. In time, we will allow them to venture out into stations with you, remaining within a certain user-defined radius of your avatar while you're out and about, with a chance-based risk that they will run away.
• Larger pets which are true mounts, and can be ridden, raced, and used in combat scenarios in specialized station environments. Unlike pets, these mounts will have hitpoints and an array of combat or performance-centric enhancements swappable via a simplified fitting screen.

Players will also gain access to five new skills: obedience training, mount control, animal husbandry, veterinarian, and gene splicing. I always wanted to be a veterinarian. Now I can be a vet on a segway! Incarna's shaping up to be the best EVE expansion yet.