If you must quit at any point during the breaking process, unstring the hide, fold it up and place it in a paper bag and then into a plastic bag and freeze it again. Depending on the moisture left in it, when you get back to it, the ice crystals should easily shake out and stretching it a little by hand should thaw it right out. Then, you can put it back in the rack and continue. Shaking out that ice speeds up the process of drying actually, for frozen water is falling away, freeze drying it, if you will. It can even be washed, once smoked.
Smoking also gives it color and bug proofs and bacteria proofs the hide.
In fact, a garment made of smoked braintan can absorb sweat and never retain or give off a body odor. Now, trim off that hard edge where the rope holes were off the hide. Now, you will need a smoker. There are many ways of building one. You may modify an old charcoal grill by cutting a hole in the top big enough to fit a piece of stove pipe or you may use a tripod that you just wrap the hide around over the fire pit.