User blog comment:CBandJIM/Red Dead Gold Medal Standards/@comment-2172705-20100721225004

Most of the NPC actors really slow you down. I usually rode ahead of them, just far enough so they were always at the end of the radar and still in hearing distance. Obviously, you have to memorize the route in order to be able to this. As you probably already know, riding too far ahead causes NPC to stop and wait for you to ride back to them. It's a fine line, riding ahead, but not too far. After a few tries, you should get it.

If this doesn't help and you have a particular mission or two in mind I can try to be a little more specific.