BroDeal said:
He is like the nerdy guy in high school who always wanted to be one of the cool kids but they never let him into the clique. Then one day a member had pity on him and let him carry his gym bag full of used jock straps to the parking lot. From then on he is as devoted to his cool kid connection as a lost twin to a dog named Tugboat.
No, that's not a good characterization at all.
Horner's a really nice guy who had the misfortune of having no understanding of politics, and had a huge chip on his shoulder. He was working in a bike shop and paying his way to races, then riding for Nutrafig (which didn't pay much better), while constantly mouthing off that he had just as much talent as Lance, but wasn't in "the club", so he was mad about it.
There's an interview online (cyclingnews, daily peloton, somewhere...) where he goes into this in detail, how Lance had every advantage, even from his first days as a junior, and he had nothing, had to work for everything, blah, blah. He's right, BTW.
Anyway, he had a real chip on his shoulder regarding Lance in his early years, almost like Gerlach did, and he had a big mouth. That's a recipe for pi$$ing off big tex, so he never was going to get on Postal, and he's the sorta guy who needed an American team to race in Europe. And of course, that just fueled the giant chip on Horner's shoulder even more.
At some point, basically when he was out of options, he decided to kiss the ring and swallow his pride regarding Big Tex. He needed the paycheck, and he'd proven himself as a guy who can ride for others.
Once he got on the inside, he basically turned into a complete lap dog. This is different than a guy like Levi, who pretends to be a lap dog but talks smack as soon as he's out of earshot. Horner's love seems genuine.