 <p>One thing to note is that <code>include</code> will add a second db access to do the preloading. You should check what that one looks like (it should contain a big <code>IN</code> statement on the <code>player_ids</code> from <code>players_to_teams</code>).</p> <p>As for how to avoid using <code>include</code>, if you just need the name from <code>players</code>, you can do it like this: </p> <pre><code>PlayersToTeam.select("players_to_teams.id, players.FirstName AS player_name").joins(:player).limit(10).order("players.FirstName") </code></pre>