Austria attempted in June to get the Spanish Riding School in Vienna on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, claiming that the original stud farm for the breed is situated in Austria.

Austria submitted the bid single-handedly even though six European Lipizzan stud farms had been negotiating since 2013 a joint nomination for the UNESCO list.

The document, filed with UNESCO in June, said the Piber stud farm near Graz keeps the original genealogy records and the stud book for the breed as the original Lipizzan stud farm, which would protect all activities related to the breeding of the white horse.

The Slovenian farm in the village of Lipica - which lends its name to the horse - appealed to this with the support of the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, the culture and foreign ministries and the Slovenian National UNESCO Commission.

Austria's backtracking means that Lipica will now take the initiative in the transnational UNESCO bid for Lipizzan stud farms to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage.

Lipica was established in 1580, although the history of horse breeding in the area goes back to antiquity, while the Piber farm claims on its website to be "home to the famous Lipizzaners" since 1920.