At the time I found this bug, it was creative but i had been using the /gamemode command to switch back and forth.
Basically I noticed this: If you are riding a horse in F5 mode, you'll see it like you would in a boat, minecart, etc. But if you run thru a 2 block high hole, by jumping into it, it forces you back into normal vision mode.
The pic in F5 mod demonstrates what it looks like before and the pic in normal viewing is what it looks like after I jumped thru the hole.
Duplicate of MC-128.