The Red Pony - Characters

Characters

• Jody Tiflin - the young protagonist of The Red Pony is innocent, dedicated, and polite. “He was a little boy, ten years old, with hair like dusty yellow grass and with shy polite grey eyes, and with a mouth that worked when he thought." He is the son of Carl Tiflin and learns to train horses from his role model Billy Buck.

• Billy Buck - Billy Buck is a middle-aged man who is experienced with horses. He works for the Tiflins as the stable helper. "He was a broad, bandy-legged little man with a walrus mustache... The belt showed... the gradual increase of Billy’s middle over a period of years." Billy Buck teaches Jody all there is to know about caring for horses.

• Carl Tiflin - Carl Tiflin is the father of Jody. He likes order and will accept nothing less than a respectable farm. “Jody’s tall stern father came in then." He is strict on Jody, but has a loving touch in him.

• Gitano - Gitano is an elderly man that used to live near Jody’s family’s farm. He and Jody meet in front of the farm, and Jody “ into the house for help.” and returns with his mother. His mother asks Gitano what he wants to do in the ranch. He replies, "'I will stay here... until I die.'" Gitano is not capable of working as well as young farmers, but is a “lean man, very straight in the shoulders."

• Grandfather - Mrs. Tiflin's father, an old man who lives by the seaside and loves to tell old stories and tall tales about his pioneer days, when he boldly led a wagon train of settlers across the continent.