welcome to guitar trick..
You've come to the right place.
Don't worry about the "dead horse".. If you set up a desent practice schedule.
you'll work out the stiffness. the first hurdle is getting over the finger tip pain.. Take it easy for the first few weeks.
There is plenty of help here from the instructor and the other students in the forum..
You may want to check out the finger exercises to work on the dexterity and stretching.. The search tools are handy as sometimes forum messages get lost and you can find what you need in tutorial or forum search.
for example, "stretching" place in sight search brought uo this
http://www.guitartricks.com/search.php?input=stretching&search.x=14&search.y=10
the forum seach is less productive and you may need to try rephrase your request.
Good Luck and enjoy the ride