The expression cart before the horse is an idiom or proverb used to suggest something is done contrary to the natural or normally effective sequence of events.[1] A cart is a vehicle that is ordinarily pulled by a horse, so to put the cart before the horse is an analogy for doing things in the wrong order.[2] The figure of speech means doing things the wrong way round or with the wrong emphasis or confusing cause and effect.[3][4]
The meaning of the phrase is based on the common knowledge that a horse usually pulls a cart, despite rare examples of vehicles pushed by horses in 19th-century Germany[5] and early 20th-century France.[6]
The earliest recorded use of the proverb was in the early 16th century.[7] It was a figure of speech in the Renaissance.[8] A variant of the proverb is used by William Shakespeare in King Lear Act I, scene iv, line 230: "May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?"