Queen all smiles in rare public appearance as horse comes out on top
The Queen was all smiles when her horse was named supreme champion after she made a rare public appearance and joined crowds at an equestrian show.
Looking relaxed and laughing, the head of state sat in a vehicle and watched entrants in the parade ring as she chatted to officials from the Royal Windsor horse show and members of her staff through the open passenger window.
The 96-year-old monarch had reluctantly missed the state opening of parliament on Tuesday on the advice of royal doctors because of her continued mobility problems, and delegated her role to the Prince of Wales and Duke of
Cambridge.
But despite concerns about her health, she appeared well and spent almost an hour at the parade ring close to her Windsor Castle home, and spent a long period chatting to the retired racehorse trainer Henrietta Knight.
Colin Brooks, the chair of the show’s committee, shared a joke with the Queen, and her head groom Terry Pendry was on hand to offer his advice.
The Queen had arrived to watch the Highland Class 64 event and her horse Balmoral Leia, a five-year-old grey dun mare, was named winner and was later announced as a supreme champion.
The monarch was last seen in public on 29 March when she attended a service commemorating the life of her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, with senior royals and a congregation of hundreds.
She reached her platinum jubilee in February, overcame a bout of Covid after testing positive that month, and celebrated her 96th birthday on 21 April, privately at her Sandringham estate.
Last October, the Queen spent a night in hospital and over the following three months was under doctors’ orders to conduct only light duties and missed a number of prominent events.
She has been using a walking stick in public since she attended a service marking the centenary of the Royal British Legion last October.