I could see the argument that you have to have quick reflexes for piloting. In case of things going sideways you need to react and do things swiftly. However, when we look at the uses of the Ride skill, all are for combat. There is no "handle animal" skill, or an equivalent. I suppose we could argue Kn. Life Sciences could be used for this, given it covers biology, botany and xenobiology. And I could also see Survival being used here, in fact, probably makes more sense than Knowledge, since to me, Knowledge would be more book smarts, vs Survival being actual application and in-field use.
That being said, I don't have a problem with Piloting being switched to Int. There's probably a few hiccups here and there, but I can't imagine it would really break anything.