大学入学共通テスト2021(R)⑧第５問

ー Five years ago, Mrs. Sabine Rouas lost her horse. She had spent 20 years
with the horse before he died of old age. At that time, she felt that she could
never own another horse. Out of loneliness, she spent hours watching cows on
a nearby milk farm. Then, one day, she asked the farmer if she could help
look after them.

ー The farmer agreed, and Sabine started work. She quickly developed a
friendship with one of the cows. As the cow was pregnant, she spent more
time with it than with the others. After the cow’s baby was born, the baby
started following Sabine around. Unfortunately, the farmer wasn’t interested
in keeping a bull – a male cow – on a milk farm. The farmer planned to sell the
baby bull, which he called Three-oh-nine (309), to a meat market. Sabine
decided she wasn’t going to let that happen, so she asked the farmer if she
could buy him and his mother. The farmer agreed, and she bought them.
Sabine then started taking 309 for walks to town. About nine months later,
when at last she had permission to move the animals, they moved to Sabine’s
farm.

ー Soon after, Sabine was offered a pony. At first, she wasn’t sure if she
wanted to have him, but the memory of her horse was no longer painful, so
she accepted the pony and named him Leon. She then decided to return to
her old hobby and started training him for show jumping. Three-oh-nine,
who she had renamed Aston, spent most of his time with Leon, and the two became really close friends. However, Sabine had not expected Aston to pay close attention to her training routine with Leon, nor had she expected
Aston to pick up some tricks. The young bull quickly mastered walking,
galloping, stopping, going backwards, and turning around on command. He responded to Sabine’s voice just like a horse. And despite weighing
1,300 kg, it took him just 18 months to learn how to leap over one-meter-high horse jumps with Sabine on his back. Aston might never have learned those things without having watched Leon. Moreover, Aston understood distance
and could adjust his steps before a jump. He also noticed his faults and corrected them without any help from Sabine. That’s something only
the very best Olympic-standard horses can do.

ー Now Sabine and Aston go to weekend fairs and horse shows around
Europe to show off his skills. Sabine says, “We get a good reaction, Mostly
people are really surprised, and at first, they can be a bit scared because he’s
big – much bigger than a horse. Most people don’t like to get too close to bulls
with horns. But once they see his real nature, and see him performing, they
often say, “Oh he’s really quite beautiful.”

ー “Look!” And Sabine shows a photo of Aston on her smartphone. She then
continues, “When Aston was very young, I used to take him out for walks on a
lead, like a dog, so that he would  get used to humans. Maybe that’s why he
doesn’t mind people. Because he is so calm, children, in particular, really like
watching him and getting a chance to be close to him.”

ー Over the last few years, news of the massive show-jumping bull has
spread rapidly; now, Aston is a major attraction with a growing number of
online followers. Aston and Sabine sometimes need to travel 200 or 300
kilometers away from home, which means they have to stay overnight.
Aston has to sleep in a horse box, which isn’t really big enough for him.

ー “He doesn’t like it. I have to sleep with him in the box,” says Sabine. “But
you know, when he wakes up and changes position, he is very careful not to
crush me. He really is very gentle. He sometimes gets lonely, and he doesn’t 
like being away from Leon for too long; but other than that, he’s very happy.”