Riding Freedom is a 1990s Historical Fiction novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan. It details the story of Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst, stagecoach rider extraordinaire.
Charlotte knows horses best and rides them. She also knows that as an orphan entering her teenage years and the only girl in their orphanage. Then her favorite horse Freedom dies after a friendly riding race, the cruel overseer Mr. Millshark confines her to kitchen duties with his second-in-command Mrs. Boyle; Mrs. Boyle had previously stopped Charlotte from being adopted as a younger child. Charlotte decides to take action before they make her the lady's replacement cook. Her friends Hay and Vern advise her not to run away; if she's caught, she has to stay two more years in the orphanage. Charlotte has a plan, however, after she borrows a pair of scissors, money for a stagecoach, and her best friend Hay's spare clothes. They'll be looking for a girl, and boys are allowed to drive horses. Soon Charley Parkhurst, as Charlotte calls herself, finds a job driving stagecoaches for business owner Ebeneezer Balch.
Tropes for this book include:
- Becoming the Mask: Charlotte is more comfortable presenting as a boy and later a man. When Hay asks towards the end of the story if "she" will ever reveal her identity, Charlotte says maybe. The afterward reveals that no one found out Charley Parkhust's assigned gender until after she died.
- The Dog Bites Back: When Mr. Millshark rides with Charley, who covers her face with a bandanna to hide her identity, she deliberately drives the coach into the mud. "He" asks Mr. Millshark to pull out the wheel from the mud and advises that the man remove his fancy boots. The boots mysterious vanish and Mr. Millshark isn't fond of being covered in muck. Charley smirks behind his back and gives the boots to Ebeneezer.
- Faking the Dead: To ensure that no one comes looking for Charlotte Parkhurst, "Charley" leaves her apron to drift. in the river. This action is enough for people to assume that the poor little orphan girl drowned.
- Handicapped Badass: After successfully getting a stagecoach across a flooded-out bridge — Charley made everyone cross on foot before getting the horses across on an empty coach— Charley Parkhurst earns the moniker "One-Eyed Charley" and is seen as the coolest rider in the west.
- Parental Substitute: Ebeneezer is grumpy as hell and hard on "Charley" when hiring him as a stage-riding coach intern. He also becomes the closest thing to a father that Charlotte has. Charlotte asks him to come with her to California when she's settled, and he helps deliver a twin foal and filly.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Charlotte didn't tell Hay her plan exactly before he was adopted out to a nice couple. She did afterward, however, and he comes to visit her in California. Vern also knew since Charlotte paid back her loan on the carriage fare.
- Ebeneeezer found out at some point that his best stagecoach rider was a runaway orphan girl. He keeps her secret because she's the best employee, and despite himself, he is super fond of her. In fact, his main protest about her going to California is the fear that she'll be discovered and not just him losing his favorite driver.
- The doctor that examines Charlotte after a horse kicks out her eye says that her secret is safe with him. He says she's not the first woman in the west who dressed as a man.
