How we cite our quotes: (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Jody did not ask where his father and Billy Buck were riding that day, but he wished he might go along. His father was a disciplinarian. Jody obeyed him in everything without questions of any kind. (1.7)
Early on, we get a pretty clear sense of Jody's feelings for both men. The boy obeys his father without question, but when it comes to Billy Buck, he just wants to hang out. It's difficult to imagine here that Jody wants to ride along with them so that he can be with his Dad. In fact, it's almost as if he is somewhat afraid of Carl. But still he wishes he could go with them because he admires what they are doing and wants to be a man someday, too.
Quote #2
Six boys came over the hill half an hour early that afternoon, running hard, their heads down, their forearms working, their breath whistling. They swept by the house and cut across the stubble-field to the barn. And then they stood self-consciously before the pony, and they looked at Jody with eyes in which there was a new admiration and a new respect. Before today Jody had been a boy, dressed in overalls and a blue shirt—quieter than most, even suspected of being a little cowardly. And now he was different. Out of a thousand centuries they drew the ancient admiration of the footman for the horseman. (1.50)
Now Jody's friends find something to admire in him. Of course it's nothing about Jody per se—it's just the sheer fact that he has a pony all to himself. Nevertheless, Jody's totally eating up all their fawning. And hey, what kid wouldn't?
Quote #3
Jody listened carefully, for he knew and the whole county knew that Billy Buck was a fine hand with horses. Billy's own horse was a stringy cayuse with a hammer head, but he nearly always won first prize at the stock trials. Billy could rope a steer, take a double half-hitch about the horn with his riata, and dismount, and his horse would play the steer as an angler plays a fish, keeping a tight rope until the steer was down or beaten. (1.68)
Welp, whatever all that means it sounds like Billy is an ace with horses and Jody just loves to watch him work. It's good for a boy to have a role model and if he can't find something to admire in his father, Billy will have to do. Let's just hope he doesn't let the kid down—oh wait.
Quote #4
"Maybe I'll leave Gabilan in the corral when I go to school today."
"Be good for him to be out in the sun," Billy assured him. […]
"If the rain comes, though—" Jody suggested.
"Not likely to rain today. She's rained herself out." Billy pulled up his sleeves and snapped his arm bands. "If it comes on to rain—why a little rain don't hurt a horse."
"Well if it does come to rain, you put him in, will you, Billy? I'm scared he might get cold so I couldn't ride him when the time comes."
"Oh sure! I'll watch out for him if we get back in time. But it won't rain today."
And so Jody, when he went to school, left Gabilan standing out in the corral. (1.94-1.95, 1.96-1.100)
As much as Jody admires Billy Buck, that doesn't stop him from questioning his technique. Jody just wants to be 100% certain that Billy will be around to let Gabilan back inside if it starts to rain. His horse's life is at stake, after all. But Jody admires and trusts Billy, so at the end of the day, he takes him at his word… which doesn't go so well.
Quote #5
Jody's father walked into the barn and stood with them in front of the stall. At length he turned to the boy. "Hadn't you better come with me? I'm going to drive down the hill." Jody shook his head. "You better come on, out of this," his father insisted.
Billy turned on him angrily. "Let him alone. It's his pony, isn't it?" (1.172-1.173)
Who do you admire more in this moment? It's a tough call. We mean Carl has a point—witnessing this tragic death probably won't do any favors for Jody (and afterwards, he does show some odd serial killer tendencies for a while). But Billy's got a point, too. It's Jody's pony. So shouldn't Jody get to stick with him until the end?
Quote #6
Billy Buck broke in. "They got a right to rest after they worked all their life. Maybe they just like to walk around." (2.104)
Billy's got a soft spot for old animals and old men. Maybe that's because he admires all the hard work they've done over the years, whereas Carl just sees them as useless because their hard work is all behind them.
Quote #7
They turned and walked slowly down the hill toward the barn. Jody was tortured with a thing he had to say, although he didn't want to. "Billy," he began miserably, "Billy, you won't let anything happen to the colt, will you?"
And Billy knew he was thinking of the red pony, Gabilan, and how it had died of strangles. Billy knew he had been infallible before that, and now he was capable of failure. (3.91-3.92)
Okay, maybe Jody doesn't admire Billy as much as he used to, but he still wants to believe that the guy knows his stuff. And maybe the promise of this new colt will redeem the ranch hand in Jody's eyes. Heck, maybe Carl will grow wings and fly them all to the moon. Anything's possible.
Quote #8
Sometimes in the night the ranch people, safe in their beds, heard a roar of hoofs go by. They said, "It's Jody, on Demon. He's helping the sheriff again." (3.97)
In Jody's fantasies, he is a man of high regard, a hero even. The townspeople admire him and his colt Black Demon. Is that what he wants to grow up to be? Someone whom others worship?
Quote #9
The mare turned her head and looked full into his eyes for a moment, and this is a thing horses practically never do. Billy was proud and sure of himself now. He boasted a little. "I'll see you get a good colt. I'll start you right. And if you do like I say, you'll have the best horse in the county."
That made Jody feel warm and proud, too; so proud that when he went back to the house he bowed his legs and swayed his shoulders as horsemen do. (3.119-3.120)
All it takes is a little bit of Billy fluffing his own feathers to get Jody back into his corner again. If good ol' Billy Buck says things are going to be okay, then by golly, that's just how it's gonna be. We hope.
Quote #10
Jody lay in his bed and thought of the impossible world of Indians and buffaloes, a world that had ceased to be forever. He wished he could have been living in the heroic time, but he knew he was not of heroic timber. No one living now, save possibly Billy Buck, was worthy to do the things that had been done. A race of giants had lived then, fearless men, men of a staunchness unknown in this day. Jody thought of the wide plains and the wagons moving across like centipedes. He thought of Grandfather on a huge white horse, marshaling the people. (4.113)
Sure, Jody loves his Grandfather. But more than that, he respects and admires the snot out of him. Only Billy Buck stands anywhere close to his Grandfather when it comes to men he wants to model himself after. Carl isn't even in the running.