Queen Elizabeth II appeared all smiles on Friday at a prestigious equestrian competition in Windsor, enough to allay concerns about her state of health a few days after missing the opening of the new parliamentary session.

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Passionate about horses, the 96-year-old sovereign was photographed, visibly relaxed, on her arrival at the “Royal Windsor Horse Show”, near Windsor Castle in west London where she now resides.

Wearing tinted glasses and a dark blue cardigan, she sat in the front passenger seat of a Range Rover. She was seen exchanging a few words and joking with a small group of people from the rolled down window of the car.

Several of his horses competed including Balmoral Leia, a five-year-old gray mare, who won and was later crowned supreme champion.

"I didn't expect to see her, it was a wish, a dream, but never a possibility," Cathy Paige, an American tourist from Massachusetts, told the PA news agency, adding: "It's was a moment I will never forget.

Following her mare's victory, the Queen returned to Windsor Castle, then later returned to the horse show where she joined the Earl and Countess of Wessex. The Queen was spotted using a cane as she made her way to her seat in the royal box.

Due to difficulties in getting around and on the advice of her doctors, Elizabeth II had given up on Tuesday to deliver the traditional speech from the throne marking a new parliamentary session, for only the third time in 70 years of reign.

She was replaced for the first time by Crown Prince Charles, 73, bringing a new sign of the transition underway for the British monarchy under the effect of his health problems.

The Queen's appearances have become rare. Elizabeth II had spent a night in the hospital last October for reasons that have never been revealed. She had also been infected with the coronavirus in February.

Her last public appearance was on March 29 when she attended the service of thanksgiving for her late husband Prince Philip, who died aged 99 in 2021.

His absence from the throne speech had raised questions about his participation in early June in the platinum jubilee celebrations marking his 70 years of reign, unequaled for a British monarch.

According to a YouGov poll for The Times newspaper, a third of Britons believe she should retire.