Duluk takes the classic Western image, a cowboy against an orange sunset, and mocks it. The opening line calls the sky a "cliché," and the men in "standard manly boots" are tired, stubbly, and hoping for a scene that makes them look visionary. The speaker seems amused and a little scornful of the whole pose.
The story that follows undercuts the myth. The cowboy asks his spotted horse where they're going, and the horse only says "Neigh." He climbs on out of spite, "just to aggravate," gets bucked off, and ends up flat on his sunburned back. The horse, with its "stupid little eyes," seems to pretend it knows something. The last joke is that it almost runs off to the next town but doesn't, because it doesn't know the way.
The mood is playful, sarcastic, and deflating. Neither man nor horse is a hero. Both are lost, and the poem enjoys that.