The professional life of James " Jimmy " Buchanan began on the feathery backside of an ostrich as it scrambled across the stage of Dolly Parton 's dinner-theater spectacle " Dixie Stampede " in Myrtle Beach , S.C. For someone who was raised on horses since age 2 -- trotting around his grandparents ' farm in Dickerson , leaping fences at a stable in Lorton , snapping his collarbone after being tossed off a saddle -- the ostrich still proved to be a harsh mistress .