This Sheriff dude is proving to be quite the know-it-all…
What gear? They lit off without so much as a poncho!! And Sheriff, could you be any more condescending? Your Little Pony? Please… technically “pony” is reserved for any equine less than 14.2 hands high… and other considerations… but judging from the proportions in the last panel and in previous days, Johnny’s mount ain’t no pony… either that, or Johnny has suddenly shrunk to child-size. So, calm, heavy horses it is. Like Boxer in George Orwell’s Animal Farm… Unquestioning, unwavering, faithful to the end in whatever power structure is in place and whatever task is put before him.
The Daily Trail 
Yeah, where the hell does the Sheriff think they are, anyway? “Grab your gear and load up the other horse. Other horse?! Does he think Johnny keeps a string of stables along the trail?
Johnny can’t go back to the ranch, since the Sheriff already liberated the only sturdy, calm horses THEY had. Maybe the Sheriff is having a flashback fantasy, as if it were the 1890s. Next thing you know, the Sheriff will start going on about making a “cold camp” for the night and ask Johnny to “injun” up the side of some hill to scout ahead. “Okay, Kemosabe.”