They do come from slaughtered horses. I realize there are plenty of people who are not against horse slaughter, so they won’t care. But no one seems to mind them but me.
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They don’t necessarily come from slaughtered horses. They do come from horses that have been euthanized. Many people who have had to put down a beloved horse has taken the tail for a variety of reasons, none of which are creepy.
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I don’t necessarily find them creepy, but I don’t like the look. It does change the way the horse moves their tail and even sometimes the way they move. I can always spot a fake tail a mile away. I find it distracting from the overall picture.
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Depends on where you get the tail, but I’ve sold my horses tail for a switch before. ASB tail that got trimmed prior to turnout with no more tail bag. Tail was 6’ long and crazy thick.
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I think they look ridiculous regardless of where they come from. But then again I also think pulled and braided manes look very silly so I doubt my opinion holds much merit with most lol
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I have made fake tails from wonderful horses who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and I have bought fake tales at various sources --usually eBay or the Kalamazoo Tack Sale.
The “fake look” depends on how skilled the groomer is. We added up to 1 pound of tail to my granddaughter’s 4-H horse --the tail wasn’t weighted, that’s how much the hair weighed --but it was in four 1/4 pound sections --each carefully matched to the horse’s natural tail (he was a dun, so we used both chestnut and dark brown tails to augment his.
As to “I can spot it a mile away,” and “always look fake,” Granddaughter was lined up waiting for her turn to do an in hand pattern. The judge --nationally recognized, was standing beside her and her horse Max. the horse leaving the ring after his turn had stepped on his fake tail and pulled it out. There was a delay while the owner went back and picked up her lost tail. The judge looked over Max, and said to my granddaughter, “I bet you are glad your horse doesn’t need a tail extension!” And Max was wearing FOUR extensions --but I may not be the best at everything I try my hand to --but I can put in a fake tail so even an expert can’t tell it from the real thing --it’s all about where it is attached and the color of the extension.
I also added tail hair to DD 3-Day horse for dressage --yep, you can do that --and no one was the wiser.
The only “creepy” grooming I think is “creepy” are the Arab people who sand white feet until they “glow pink” and the custom of SOME dressage people to pull or shave the sides of the tails --we never did that --I think it looks weird. We did smooth dock hairs with gel or hair spray. so maybe the same look?
We did a lot of artifice with grooming for Showmanship --a little touch up to make white brands look bright, a line of black to make the dorsal stripe on the Dun stand out --face oil around the eyes, and inside the ears --but we did similar things with the draft horses --mane rolls, fancy tail rosettes, flowers, etc. And then there was spraying the white feathers to make them “puffy” on the legs --great product made for cows --a super-dooper hair spray (cow people make horse people look like armatures when it comes to making cows pretty and masking confirmation defects --of maybe highlighting confirmation good points). I think the cow spray was called “Tacky Cow.”
As long as the horse isn’t hurt, then I think all the glitter, and glitz someone wants to do is fine --I still use a stencil to make a pattern on my archery horse’s butt before competitions --subtle, but people notice it.
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I worry about whether the fake tail could be uncomfortable or even painful–all that added weight.
When my hair gets to a certain length, I can’t wear a ponytail–it’s too much weight and gives me a headache. How do we know horses don’t experience something similar?
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I think this might be a bit of a self-fulfulling prophecy. You (g) can only notice the poorly done fake tails, so they have a negative connotation. It’s like plastic surgery for people. You hear it all the time, people saying “I hate the look of < specific plastic surgery trend >”. Well, what they mean is that they hate the look of poorly done plastic surgery. When it’s done well you don’t even notice it.
Maybe it’s my background showing quarter horses but I love the look of a big (natural) tail. Whenever I’m at a show and comment on how pretty a horse is, my husband always replies “yeah of course you think he’s pretty, he has a big tail” 
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I think fake tails are more obvious, but the way a horse holds its tail when it is fake is a pretty big tell for me. It makes a difference, and if you look closely enough, even a well done fake tail behaves differently than a normal tail does.
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Ohmygod. I just sat on my own hands. I could feel my fingernails trying curl up and hide.
Originally, I just came here to ask the OP “Mom, is that you?”
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Well that’s kinda my point – most horses that provide fake tails do not “cross the Rainbow Bridge”. They suffer in feedlots and livestock trucks and in their final moments of fear. To me, the fake tail bears that bad karma.
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I agree. I guess it’s an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think thinner tails look bad. I like a neat braiding job, but as long as a mane and tail are clean, appropriately groomed, and at a relatively even length, I think that’s better than going over the top with fake stuff.
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I find it so distracting when a horse’s tail is so thick that it gets stuck in the hind legs while they move. I never saw a tail like that prior to the fake tail craze (not saying it didn’t exist, but it sure wasn’t commonplace).
I feel like a fake tail has a place on a horse with a really wimpy tail. Back in the day, we’d put those horses in mud knots, and I kind of miss those!
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That is very distracting – and one thing of note, with genuine tails, when they get stuck between the hocks like that and slap around as the horse is moving, that kind of tail carriage/placement is usually synonymous with compensation from hock pain. So it is on the radar of people with trained eyes for lameness, so seeing that kind of behavior from a tail, whether or real or not, can muddle the picture.
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Fair enough. I can’t say I’ve paid that much attention to tail carriage as long as it isn’t dramatically different than average.
I agree with @Sing_Mia_Song, the look of a mud knot can be really nice!
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My horse has a super luxurious natural tail, so I automatically dislike the fake ones for stealing his glory. 
But I think some horses are never going to have a thick tail, and others can’t prevent one. If judges are rewarding it, that is a flaw. Tail should never be a factor in scoring.
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Only if they’re braided in poorly. Good braiders pull the fake (attached with a “natural loop”) into the tail braid so that it is flush against the tail bone. If that’s done, it’s physically impossible for the tail to move any differently than real tail hair.
Exhibit A:
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kind of a side topic but has anyone else had a rash of tail stealings? We had one summer where you’d go out to pasture and your horse’s tail would be cut off at the tail bone, especially white tails. There was a great deal of theories about what they were doing with them from fake tails, to native crafts to cutting meth. Stopped when winter hit, hasn’t reoccurred.
On topic I think the ones that hang up in the horses hind legs look awful - make me think of teens who wear the too big jeans that hang with the crotch by their knees, I would rather see a wimpy tail than that personally.
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I think a not insignificant number of people are using fake tails to help quiet and lower an overly busy tail, the same way the AQHA folks do. I had a hunter trainer suggest one for my old Half Arab once for that reason. I told her that, if a tail carried a little high was the only thing keeping my 15 hand Arab from a higher placing in the Adult Amateurs, I’d more than met my goals for the two of us!
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I like a well installed fake - but I don’t like the SUPER heavy tails, especially ones that get caught on their chestnuts and hocks. It should look natural and within a realistic range for what a horse could possibly grow
A lightweight fake to make up for the hair that gets caught up in the braid is what I do. My TBs have decent hair but they look a little sad after they’re braided sometimes.
