When underwater, there is something remarkable on all distant entities: they don't seem to be affected by fog anymore... When looking at some distant things from underwater, it's very remarkable that blocks fade into a blue fog, while entities just remain coloured.
Here's a screenshot:
[media]As you can see, the distant horses render remarkably visible between the blocks that have already been rendered blueish due to the underwater fog.
Please check if that's still an issue for you in 1.15pre-1 or higher.