How to get a looping animation to continue to the end when button is released

So I created this character with animations where it hops to move because it has no legs it's like a blob kind of. I have animated the elevation of the hop so the character isn't jump ever loop. The problem is that when I release the move forward key the animation jumps back to idle instantly. So if the blob is mid hop off the ground when the animation changes to idle it just jumps to being on the ground. What I want it when the movement key is released the animation of hoping will continue till it is complete before switching to idle.
How do I do that?