“But our land was dammed by our ancient enemy…the Beaver!”
It’s been a while since I spent any significant time around 8 year-old girls, so I hadn’t realized they’d perfected the emotion chip for them. 8 year-olds sometimes do things out of character. 38 year-olds sometimes do things out of character. Especially if motivated by a crush or other strong emotional stimuli.
Oh, and as far as why Lisa objected to riding the horses, as a vegetarian she is worried about animal exploitation. Riding with her crush could I suppose be seen therefore as (gasp) out of character.
Which reminds me of another of Lisa’s “first crushes,” the Dirt First! guy.
And Langdon Auger! 
I have no idea who that is.
Everything but the Lisa plot was good, which is typical for Simpsons these days.
“But the beaver is also our God. In retrospect, it was a poor choice.”
Another Lisa crush: the boy from the other Springfield Elementary (West? East?) that she twirled with all morning.
I can understand why you might think it’s inconsistent with Lisa’s character and bad writing, but how in the name of purple Jesus on a Big Wheel is it an “offensive sterotype” to portray someone as… jealous?
What sterotype is that, anyway? That humans get jealous?
They DID blow it big time on Lisa’s character, though. It’s well established that Lisa adores ponies. She’s had crushes before. How did they forget that stuff?
“Stereotype,” of course. Thanks to slamming the patio door on my finger, I’m not typing as well as usual.
I still think the funniest line in this episode was when Homer finally gets sick of his song playing on the radio.
“I’ve grown to hate my own creation…now I know how God must feel.”
shudder A Lisa* episode. I just flipped back and forth with Futurama.
I recognized the “Moe! Moe! Moe!” song as being an obvious pop song parody.
Was the “I hate Flanders” song also a parody, or was that an original tune?