When you have read WP CITE and WP UNDUE we can discuss this further Length is not the issue focus and balance is You might think most readers want to know the history of the garment I think most readers are people who like horses and want to know about riding clothing thus a modern focus is needed And we can not break this impasse because I am pretty sure that no one has taken a poll of what readers of wikipedia want to know about jodhpurs There is a place for a history section but there already is a link to the Maharaja so a lot of what you proposed probably needs to go there But for the ref links to images are seldom accessed anyway so footnoting is perfectly proper and in line with wikipedia s manual of style If the actual images can uploaded to commons then I think adding one good historical image to the article is useful but otherwise they are awkward in the text I also have no beef with clarifying that they aren t precisely breeches as they go to the ankle except that no one has yet provided a dictionary definition or either term One problem is that you and I both noticed that flared hip breeches worn with tall boots get called jodhpurs in popular culture the aviator Hollywood Military look even thought they are technically breeches And I don t know the solution because who wants to argue with say Ralph Lauren talk