A very smart but lazy horse is hitched to a cart.

He refuses to pull the

cart telling the farmer, (apparently the horse can talk as well) "No matter
how hard I pull on the cart, the cart will pull back with equal and
opposite force and it will therefore be impossible for me to pull the
cart."

Answer: First of all when the horse pulls on the cart, the cart exerts an
equal but opposite reaction on the horse, the action and reaction. If this
was the only force in action the horse and cart would indeed remain
stationary, however there is another force between the horse and the
ground. The horse 's hooves press down on the ground and the ground pushes
back on the horse. If the reaction force of the ground is greater than the
reaction force of the cart on the horse, then the horse will move forward.
The cart will move forward when the force exerted on it by the horse is
greater than the frictional force between the cart and the ground.
Remember, there are two sets of forces acting on the cart as well: the
action of the horse on the cart and reaction of cart on horse, and the
action of the cart on the ground and the reaction of frictional force of
the ground on the cart.

The same thing occurs if you are pushing a box. While the box is pushing
against you it is also pushing against the surface it is on and the surface
is pushing back. Therefore even though pairs of action-reactions cancel
out, the net or overall force resulting from different interactions allow
movement.

Here is a famous paradox related to the above mentioned law. Consider a horse pulling a
carriage. In this process, the horse applies a force (say F) on the carriage to pull it. Now,
according to the Newton's III law, the carriage will apply and equal but opposite force (i.e.
-F). Thus the net resultant Force should be F+(-F)=0. In other words, the horse would
never be able to pull the carriage, no matter what amount of Force it applies on the
carriage! Yet, we see horses pulling carriages everyday! So, where's the catch? Is the
Newton's III law wrong?
Absolutely not. The catch in the above mentioned paradox lies in the fact that of the two
forces applied on each other by the horse as well as the carriage, the force applied by horse
translates into more work than the force applied by carriage.
This is because, when the horse pulls the carriage, it is actually applying force on the
wheels of the carriage to overcome the force of friction offered to the wheels of the carriage
by the floor below. Whereas, the opposite but equal force applied by the carriage on the
horse acts on the feet of the horse to overcome the frictional force between the feet of the
horse and the floor. Now, the force of friction between the wheels of the carriage and the
floor is less than the frictional force between the feet of the horse and the floor. Thus even
though both the forces are equal and opposite, the force applied by horse on the carriage
translates into more work than the force applied by the carriage on the horse. Thus, the
horse is able to pull the carriage.
NOTE: If you remove the wheels of the carriage and make the horse pull the bare cart on
the floor, it will become more difficult for the horse to pull now as the frictional force
experienced by the horse and the carriage with the floor will almost be equal.