Informant38

To put (or set) the cart before the horse
To get the order of things reversed. (The Greeks said "Hysteron proteron" = "the later the former". The Romans said, "Currus boveris trahit preiposter" = The plow is drawn before the ox.) The phrase first appeared in English. It is found in Dan Michael's Auenbite of Inwiht (Remorse of Conscience), a translation by Dan Michael of a French treatise, written by Laurentis Galler, in 1279, into the dialect of Kent (which actually said "many religions have set the plow before the oxen.")