Overview
Clubs usually build their member list before their members have Horsify accounts — a spreadsheet import, or adding people by hand. Horsify tries to join those records up with real accounts automatically, so a rider who signs up is recognised as a member of their club without anyone re-typing anything.
Linking happens by email address, and it runs at two moments: when a club admin saves a member record, and when a rider creates a Horsify account.
No manual action is needed beyond saving the member record with the right email on it.
Two Links, Not One
A member record can carry two separate links, and it helps to know they're different:
- The Horsify account — this is what makes the person recognised as a member when they sign in. Until it's set, they can be in your member list and still be told they're not a member of the club.
- The rider profile — the horse, entry and results side of Horsify. An imported member gets a login-less rider profile so your club data has something to hang on; the goal is for the account they create to take over that same profile rather than starting an empty second one.
Who Should Use This Feature
Perfect For
- Club administrators managing members who are also Horsify platform users
- Association admins wanting member records linked to rider profiles for event registration
Prerequisites
- You must be an admin of your organisation
- The member record must carry the same email address the rider uses on Horsify
How It Works
When You Save a Member Record
If the member has no Horsify account linked yet and has an email address, Horsify:
- Looks for a Horsify account whose email matches exactly (case-insensitive)
- Links the member record to that account
- If the member was imported as a login-less rider and that account has no rider profile of its own, hands the imported profile over to the account — so the date of birth, address and emergency contact your club recorded carry across rather than being stranded
- Links any pending membership applications with the same email for your organisation
This is why re-saving a member record often fixes a member who says Horsify doesn't recognise their membership: it re-runs the match.
When a Rider Signs Up
Sign-up does the same in the other direction, and then some:
- Any unlinked member records with that email are linked to the new account
- Any pending membership applications with that email are linked
- Any current invitations to that email are accepted automatically, and a Pending member record is promoted to Active
- Horsify tries to adopt the login-less rider profile your club created, instead of making a second one
That last step is deliberately cautious. It only adopts when the email turns up exactly one unclaimed profile and the name the person typed at sign-up matches the name on your imported record. If two people share the email, or the names don't match, Horsify creates a fresh profile instead — because a spare empty profile is easy to clean up, and attaching one person's account to another person's membership is not.
Families Sharing One Email Address
This is the one thing worth being careful about.
A club member's email is not a person. Parents routinely give the same address for themselves and each of their children, and Horsify's member-record link matches on email alone. So when a parent creates their account, every member row carrying that email is linked to the parent's account — including their children's.
The rider-profile side of the match is protected against this (it checks the name and refuses when the email is ambiguous), but the account link is not.
What to do about it:
- Record each member's own email address wherever they have one. This is the single best fix.
- For children who don't have their own email, use dependants under the parent's account rather than separate member rows on the parent's email. See Dependent and Child Membership.
- If a family's memberships have ended up merged onto one account, contact Horsify support — it's fixable, but not from the member screen.
Once a Member Is Linked
When a member record has a Horsify account attached, the club can no longer edit that member's name or email from the member screen — those belong to the person and they change them in their own profile. You can still edit everything else, including notes, membership type, number, expiry and status.
If a linked member's name or email is wrong, ask them to correct it in their Horsify profile.
Key Behaviours at a Glance
| Scenario | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Rider signs up → already a club member | Member record linked on sign-up; imported rider profile adopted if the name matches and the email isn't shared |
| Club adds or edits a member → rider already has an account | Member linked when the admin saves the record, and the imported profile handed over if the account has none |
| Rider submits a membership application → matching member record exists | Application linked when either side is saved |
| Rider signs up with an open invitation to that email | Invitation accepted automatically and the Pending member made Active |
| Two family members share one email → one signs up | Both member records link to that one account — record separate emails, or use dependants |
Related Guides
- Member Management
- Member Import and Add
- Dependent and Child Membership
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Membership Applications\n\n---\n\nSource:
wiki/features/AUTO_LINK_MEMBER_RIDER.md\nLast synced: 2026-10-06 06:12:19 UTC