diff --git a/eland/ml/transformers/xgboost.py b/eland/ml/transformers/xgboost.py
index 9eb1d189..67a71b7d 100644
--- a/eland/ml/transformers/xgboost.py
+++ b/eland/ml/transformers/xgboost.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 
 import_optional_dependency("xgboost", on_version="warn")
 
-from xgboost import Booster, XGBClassifier, XGBRegressor  # type: ignore
+from xgboost import Booster, XGBClassifier, XGBModel, XGBRegressor  # type: ignore
 
 
 class XGBoostForestTransformer(ModelTransformer):
@@ -125,8 +125,6 @@ def build_forest(self) -> List[Tree]:
 
         :return: A list of Tree objects
         """
-        self.check_model_booster()
-
         tree_table: pd.DataFrame = self._model.trees_to_dataframe()
         transformed_trees = []
         curr_tree: Optional[Any] = None
@@ -155,17 +153,21 @@ def determine_target_type(self) -> str:
     def is_objective_supported(self) -> bool:
         return False
 
-    def check_model_booster(self) -> None:
+    @staticmethod
+    def check_model_booster(model: XGBModel) -> None:
         # xgboost v1 made booster default to 'None' meaning 'gbtree'
-        if self._model.booster not in {"dart", "gbtree", None}:
+        booster = (
+            model.get_booster().booster
+            if hasattr(model.get_booster(), "booster")
+            else model.booster
+        )
+        if booster not in {"dart", "gbtree", None}:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"booster must exist and be of type 'dart' or "
-                f"'gbtree', was {self._model.booster!r}"
+                f"'gbtree', was {booster!r}"
             )
 
     def transform(self) -> Ensemble:
-        self.check_model_booster()
-
         if not self.is_objective_supported():
             raise ValueError(f"Unsupported objective '{self._objective}'")
 
@@ -189,6 +191,7 @@ def __init__(self, model: XGBRegressor, feature_names: List[str]):
         super().__init__(
             model.get_booster(), feature_names, base_score, model.objective
         )
+        XGBoostForestTransformer.check_model_booster(model)
 
     def determine_target_type(self) -> str:
         return "regression"
@@ -226,6 +229,7 @@ def __init__(
             model.objective,
             classification_labels,
         )
+        XGBoostForestTransformer.check_model_booster(model)
         if model.classes_ is None:
             n_estimators = model.get_params()["n_estimators"]
             num_trees = model.get_booster().trees_to_dataframe()["Tree"].max() + 1