My horse’s tail had gotten a little too long then I forgot to tie it up this week while riding and he stepped on it. He ended up ripping out a good side chunk of it while he was backing up. I have since trimmed it so that we do not have that happen again.
If several tail hairs are ripped out do they usually grow back or does it vary depending on the horse?
Yes they tear it out on fences, long growing weeds, chewed by other horses and calves etc. A lot of people tear it out by brushing/ combing dry tails. Do not brush a dry tail except with a body brush at the top. Think of every hair you pull put with grooming, taking a year to replace. Use fingers to separate each hair and then a comb through wet tail hairs with conditioner.
I usually only pick out the tail after it has been washed and conditioned otherwise I leave it alone. I have seen too many people over the years brushing tails and pulling out hairs. Some horses just have poor tails but I started thinking the maybe some horses tails look bad because the hairs have been pulled out and never grew back.
When I was younger I had a Thb with a beautiful, full, thick tail. I rarely brushed it and took care of it as per above. About 5 years after I sold him I saw him at a show and his tail was thin and looked bad. The horse had the genetics for a nice thick tail but it seems like if the hair grew back then it would still have looked decent unless they were brushing it daily and pulling out lots of hairs.
I hate to think that I did permanent damage to my horse’s tail due to my negligence form not trimming it or putting it up.
It will take awhile but it will definitely grow back. Their hair is designed to be able take a beating and then regrow, there’s nobody in the wild to wash and detangle it for them. 
If you know how many inches of hair your horse grows a month you can divide the length of his tail by that number and you can guesstimate how long it will take.
It should all grow back. I’ve known many horses over the years who had ratty/thin tails due mostly to poor grooming habits. People wouldn’t take care of the tail (trimming splits, keeping the dock clean, detangling it well/at all) and then would just brush through it quickly when they wanted the tails to look nice. Conversely, people who took basically any special care of the tail (braiding, weekly detangling, hair supplement, etc) wound up with better tails, regardless of genetics because… the hair wasn’t constantly being pulled out. The only time I’ve seen hair not grow back is if the area was scarred.
h While diet definitely plays roles, genetics are frankly the biggest
If his tail is that long it will grow. On my mare --no.
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