2 people who are bothered by long coin collecting: you DON'T have to collect all coins, it's possible to buy every item in the game with about 1/2 of the coins.
I think I get it... it's another conceptual this-loser-is-you, essence-of-the-genre type art game, isn't it? Well 5/5 for the arty bit, but 2/5 for game play. (3.5/5 average)
It's true, what OldsKoolFool says, you don't even need to level your horse- just have it. And the charging tech. the problem is, you'll spend like a day (from levels 1 to 11 or 12) with your troops doing 1 damage on skill attacks. That really sucks juice.