Open horde/imp/mailbox.php and replace the row
if (!$h->seen || $h->recent) { with if (!$h->seen) {This will disable checking of the faulty recent flag, and only bold the unread messages. I'm using Horde 3.0.5 with IMP H3 4.0.3, but I can't see why it shouldn't work with all more recent H3 releases..
Cheers, Ville