Not intentionally. I think they just had a cool idea with some puns and jokes in their head and went with it.

Obviously being a horse in a human world was certainly an important part of the character later on in development. pretty much every other time we see other horses, it’s a significant issue for BJ, but I think they could’ve don’t the same with a dog or leopard or a zebra. I think the show runners just had some horse puns

No. The point of the show is that you can improve, and it’ll be hard, and you might struggle, but you’re not doomed