So know your course. If you don't have the opportunity to watch somebody else go, study the course, walk the course, know where you belong. Know your spots. Lots of the amateurs and most of the kids have trainers that will walk the course with them and help them know where to go. Plan where you're going, where your spots are.
Every horse is a little different and is in a little different stage of training.
Some of them need a little more help going to the left than they do to the right. Maybe some of them neck rein a little better to the right than to the left. Know your horse. Final Thoughts Trail is a very humbling event. You can be a superstar one day and you can be an idiot the next.