Obstacles ahead

Tonight I made my first steps towards jumping!!! Laura (who we now refer to as "she who sits on heaters") set up a couple poles on the ground in the shape of a big V on one side of the barn so that I could do a figure 8 pattern. I did several rounds of the figure 8s at a trot, then went up to the canter. The problems I had with Pet taking tight corners at the trot magnified doing the figure 8s at the canter, so I really had to concentrate (not always successfully) on keeping my balance back in the saddle and keeping Pet in wide circles. I also need to work on using my outside aids more to send signals, rather than inside aids. I had a few good rounds, and many more "naryly" ones as Laura put it. But you have to start somewhere. There were a couple times when I had a bit of a 'jump' feel to it and these were pretty thrilling...I like.