The Queen Glows at the Royal Windsor Horse Show

Queen Elizabeth II arrived at the Home Park on Friday to attend the annual equestrian show, which has been held since 1943. She often drives herself to the event, which is just a short distance from Windsor Castle, but this year she was smartly chauffeured to the show in one of the royal Range Rovers.

The Queen always dresses more casually for this event, so no major jewels were on display. But her arrival did give us a lovely view of her small, classic pearl stud earrings.

She covered the earrings with an elegant scarf as she arrived in the stands to watch the competition. We also got a nice view of her spectacular engagement ring, made of antique diamonds that come from the Romanovs (!), and her Welsh gold wedding band.

She was accompanied by the Earl and Countess of Wessex and Countess Mountbatten as she watched the competition.

One of the participants on Friday was the Queen’s granddaughter, Lady Louise Windsor, who has carried on the carriage driving legacy of her grandfather, the late Duke of Edinburgh. Lady Louise was elegant in simple blue and silver earrings and silver brooches as she drove the carriage. One of the brooches, which has an equestrian theme, has been worn frequently by Louise to events celebrating her grandfather’s memory.

Sophie Wessex, in small gold earrings and casual bracelets, was a proud parent as Louise drove during the Fell Pony Society Centenary Parade at Castle Arena.

And earlier in the day, the Queen couldn’t hide her delight when one of her ponies, Balmoral Leia, was named the supreme champion of the Highland Class 64 event. Look at that smile when she received the winner’s cup!

Here’s hoping the Queen continues to be well enough to attend the spectacular finale planned for Sunday evening in Windsor. The special Platinum Jubilee celebration, titled “A Gallop Through History,” will feature more than 500 horses and 1000 performers, including Helen Mirren reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth I. There will also be appearances from some of the Queen’s family members, including Lady Louise driving the Duke of Edinburgh’s carriage.

The 90-minute show will be broadcast on ITV in Britain. For those of you who, like me, live in the United States, the show will be exclusively streaming live on a service called BritBox at 3:30 PM Eastern time. There are various ways to subscribe to the streaming service (which offers a 7-day free trial). If you’re going to subscribe specifically to watch the show, please make sure that you do so through one of the platforms that allows you to watch live events. (I found helpful details on that here!) I believe they’ll also have an encore stream if you can’t watch live. Please chime in down in the comments if you’re from another country and know how the show will be available to watch where you are. And, as you might have expected, I’ll have coverage of the jewels we see during the show tomorrow evening here on the website as well!