"Lisa's Pony" was written by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who were show runners of "The Simpsons" when the episode was produced. According to Reiss, being a show runner is a stressful job as he has to supervise all the processes the episodes go through. Jean and Reiss were working approximately 80–100 hours a week when they were assigned to write an episode on top of their regular job. "Lisa's Pony" was written between 10.00 p.m. and 1.00 a.m. every night after they had finished their 12- to 14-hour workday. They came up with idea for it while going through a list of Lisa's interests, and Jean told Reiss, "Lisa likes ponies; we give her a pony." While writing down ideas for the story, they decided to explore the consequences of having a pony in a suburban house.