Geert Weggen / mediadrumworld.com

By Mark McConville

SURREAL pictures have captured a couple of wild red squirrels indulging in what appears to be a spot of horse-riding.

The amusing images show the squirrels atop a pair of toy horses as they attempt to reach the food which is placed just out of shot.

Geert Weggen / mediadrumworld.com

One of the squirrels even stradles both the horses at once as it nibbles away at the food it has managed to grab.

The humourous photographs were taken in Bispgården, Sweden by local artist and photographer Geert Weggen (48).

Geert Weggen / mediadrumworld.com

“I tried to give the idea that there is a lot of action going on,” he said.

“It seems that squirrels really are jumping and doing stunts on horses. It is all about food and to stage the horses right.

“I hang the food in the air above the horses and some food on it. I screw the horses down and secure their legs with wires.

“These are wild squirrels and it takes month to get them used to me and my equipment. Their love for food makes that they overcome their fears and now after years of working with them they are directly looking for hidden or hanging food in the scenes I set up.”

Geert Weggen / mediadrumworld.com

Mr Weggen specialises in photographing squirrels and gets frustrated that many people believe his pictures to be photoshopped or that the squirrels in them are dead.

“There is magic and the impossible can be possible,” he said.

“All animals can be communicated with like everything in nature. I learn a lot of these wildlings and it feels like a close friendship with some of them.

Geert Weggen / mediadrumworld.com

“The first years I started with this many people where thinking that this must be edited or dead squirrels etc.

“Every time it is a big challenge to capture the ideas I have and want to capture. Most of the time it is frustrating.

“Still now it is often a hard thing to capture that moment with the right light. These difficult things make the love for this work, because the results are often like magic.”

Geert Weggen / mediadrumworld.com

Mr Weggen is currently working a Christmas squirrel book and has a calendar available on Amazon called ‘Getting Squirrelly’.