I am setting up my PS2 and putting FFT in after this. I only own/play the original, so some details/names may be different. Forewarning: Long post is long.
FFT is challenging, but deeply rewarding when you start learning more. You'll appreciate it more once you've played longer, or decide to replay the game again later. This game is very "Final Fantasy" in its balance, in that you can break the game using multiple strategies. While some people have already mentioned several, you can't do any of these unless you grind for dozens of hours so let's go a bit more basic.
It sounds like early random battles are taking you 1.5 hours, which should never happen. This leads me to believe that you're doing something fundamentally wrong with your battle approach or party setup. When starting, it's a good idea to pick 3 people for fighter classes, and 2 chemists to become your mages, as this should give you a fairly diverse party. Abilities like Gained JP Up, Move +1, and Throw Item are hugely useful for everyone, and make sure every character can heal themselves or others by equipping secondary skill sets like Item or White Magic (you can certainly bend this rule later, but as a new player I'd highly suggest it). As random encounters level with you, skills and equipment is where you'll find your edge (why JP Up is so useful).
Strategy can't really be taught in a single forum post, so let's just look at your chocobo problem. Choco-Cure heals EVERYTHING nearby, including your allies, so with proper positioning your party will benefit as much, if not more, from this skill (most abilities don't discriminate between friend or foe, exceptions being summon spells and Samurai's Drawout skills). If a chocobo runs, let it. It'll come back to attack, so finish off his allies in the meantime. You can also use this time to encircle the enemy so the chocobo can't reach it to cure. When other enemies are dead, circle the chocobo and kill it. Counter can be...er...countered by using long-range attacks, such as bows, Throw Stone, or spells. Spells can also be useful since if a chocobo just healed his allies, they're also clustered for a black magic spell.
Learning which approaches to use is the learning curve and that just comes from experience. Also ask what's the most productive thing a unit could do before making a move. Damaging enemies is good, but if you can't reach them in the current turn what else could you do? Group allies for a Protect/Haste spell? Use a squire ability to give a little buff to an ally, or at least get in range for a Throw Stone? Use a potion on yourself or nearby ally? Can you do one of these while staying outside of the enemy's movement/attack range, meaning that HE has to waste a turn getting to you instead?
Some additional tips:
-CT list is your friend. When using a spell, press left or right to see when it goes off in the turn order if you're unsure if the enemy will move before the spells casts. This also works for instant actions, like using items or squire skills if you just want to check turn order quickly.
-Squire is Ramza's best class. Seriously. His Squire is special, in that he can equip a wider variety of items than other squires, and also gains additional abilities in later chapters. If he's a squire while hit with Ultima, he learns it. You can certainly make him other classes, but unlike most characters you shouldn't forget about Squire once other jobs open up.
-Brave and Faith are important. Brave helps with many physical actions, while Faith makes magic more successful. Also, Zodiacs can strongly impact the effectiveness of skills. If the damage you deal is wildly less or more than what the pre-action numbers were, or if a cure spell has an unusually low chance of success, this is likely the cause.
-Don't advance in classes too soon. Core skills are very useful, such as JP Up, Move +1, Auto-Potion, Equip Armor, Magic Up, etc, and having people master a class can give you a very potent specialist; having a Black Mage with Flare at the end of Chapter 2 makes the boss fight fairly easy. Additionally, you may not be able to properly outfit a character depending on your funds or shop selection.
-Leveling up in a class determines what base stats are improved (Black mages get more Magic attack, Summoners MP, Ninjas Speed, etc.). Later on you can send your generic team mates out on jobs to get JP, so if there's a class you don't want to level in (Mediator) make them that class then send them out to gain JP without XP.
-Make a separate save if you're not saving on the world map. In some sections you'll have to fight several battles in sequence and depending on your party setup certain battles may become almost impossible. Always having a save on the world map allows you to go back and prepare for a battle that gives you trouble.
-There are many ways to break the game. Orlandu puts the game on easy, as does Ninja-Calculators, Dual-Wielding Blood Swords, Auto-Potion with only X-Potions in inventory, and many others. If you find yourself seriously stuck in a battle like noted above, you can have Ramza spam Scream to boost all his stats until he's 4x faster than everyone else and can 1-shot bosses. Ramza will gain several levels doing this, so use only as a last-resort, lest you be crushed by high-level random enemies. Use or avoid these sort of things depending on the difficulty that you want.
-As with "Final Fantasy Balancing", magic becomes worthless towards end-game as physical attacks deal as much damage (if not more) and take less time and effort to execute. You can counter this by equipping Short Charge to speed up powerful high-level spells, or Magic Up to power up fast low-level spells.
-Avoid Barius Hill. It can have some of the hardest randoms latter in the game, like groups of dragons/tiamats or 10 Red Chocobos. Save before crossing.
I'd strongly encourage you to stick with it. Strategies to teach a player while he plays have certainly come a long way over the past 15 years, but if you can survive that barrier to entry it's a hugely enjoyable game. It may or may not take that 10-20 hours (I mostly had a handle on the game after passing Dorter Trade city).
