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SANDPOINT — Boston Bode’s path to training mustangs first began her freshman year of high school when she adopted Legend, a then-six-month-old reservation mustang.

Bode remembers driving to Burns, Oregon, with her dad to pick up her horse. From the beginning, it was an instant connection, she said.

“I got to pick her out of 16 horses,” Bode said. “She came up to me [and] we just bonded. She trusted everything.”

Even before Bode got Legend, she had been fascinated by wild mustangs, she said. As a younger child she participated in 4-H and took riding lessons. After training Legend, she knew she wanted to continue down that path.

Now 16 years old, Bode is doing just that — because in about two weeks, she’ll be competing in the “Extreme Mustang Makeover,” an annual event where trainers are given approximately 100 days to train a wild mustang for competition.

Bode’s newest horse, a 2-year-old pinto gelding named Legacy, was brought home in February of last year.

Legacy presented more challenges than Legend had, she said, having spent most of his life away from people. Bode didn’t give up though, and as the competition nears he’s improved by leaps and bounds.

“He let me pet his face and his sides and back. That was it for the first month and a half,” she said.

Since then he’s learned to work on a lead rope in addition to other groundwork — a term equestrians use to describe training and movements horses learn without a rider that will support later training as they’re ridden.

Legacy still has a long way to go, Bode said, and likely won’t be as polished as some of the other mustangs in the competition. But she’s still proud of the progress Legacy has made, and the bond she’s formed with him.

Some trainers focus on “breaking” the horse, she said, but she likes to build a relationship with her horses and train so Legacy will choose to do what she’s asking on his own instead of just being forced.

“I think it’s really cool, especially starting with a wild mustang and knowing you’re the first person they’re going to be having a good experience with,” she said. “Seeing them grow every day and learning [you’re] not going to hurt them . Legacy especially, he doesn’t like other people, he doesn’t know them yet, so he hides behind me, which is really cute.”

Marianne Love, a family friend, has known Bode since she was a little girl and said the teenager has always had a love for animals. From a young age she was caring for an array of animals including goats, chickens and fish.

Eventually, Bode said she'd like to be a veterinarian. Whether she focuses on horses has yet to be decided.

Regardless, Bode is one of the best-suited people for the task of training a wild horse, Love said.

“The biggest aspect is trust,” Love said. “They don’t know much about people. They don’t have people walking around telling them how beautiful they are. You need to make sure you don’t ruin that trust. That is very meticulous [work].”

Unlike domesticated horses, who are often trained in basic groundwork such as following with a halter and lead from a young age, mustangs don’t have the same experience and trust in people.

“Boston is one of these self-motivated people,” Love said. “She is probably working with the most difficult horse training there could be.”

To prepare for the competition, Bode has been working with Legacy for around four hours a day each day, said her mother, Tricia Dickens. Neither she nor her husband had experience with horses, but that hasn’t stopped Bode.

Bode will be competing with 19 other youths in the Kentucky division, which the family selected because they had family there — and she’s excited to do the competition again next year.

“Mustangs aren’t dangerous,” Bode said. “They’re these amazing horses, and [they can do great things] once you get a bond with them.”