General Horse Information

Reward and Punishment

They learn how to obey commands and to do or not to do certain things, by connecting these things with pleasant (reward) or unpleasant (punishment) feelings.

A horse can only pay attention to a reward or punishment for about 3 seconds.

This means that the pleasant or unpleasant feelings must come immediately after the horse has done something right or wrong.  A few minutes later will be too late. He won't understand why he is being rewarded or punished.